Extracting strings between two Regex expression

Question

I have a string (log file), I want to extract all the text between two strings (multiple instances).

This is the text I have:

++ PLANNING ITERATIONS of DEMAND 337 ++
=========================================

 Demand: 337   Event: 1189.001   Object/State: 7058/0   Tier: 0   Start: 1608130700   Duration: 90   At: 19-7-2016 16:19:36
 Demand: 337   Event: 1190.001   Object/State: 7059/0   Tier: 0   Start: 1608130830   Duration: 330   At: 19-7-2016 16:19:36
 Demand: 337   Event: 1191.001   Object/State: 7060/0   Tier: 0   Start: 1608140000   Duration: 360   At: 19-7-2016 16:19:36

++ EVENT PLAN of DEMAND 337 ++
===============================

event_time(1242.001,1,1609070800,1609071430)
event_time(1241.001,1,1609060800,1609061430)
event_time(1240.001,1,1609050800,1609051430)


++ PLANNING ITERATIONS of DEMAND 174 ++
=========================================

 Demand: 174   Event: 212.001   Object/State: 6948/0   Tier: 0   Start: 1609010800   Duration: 390   At: 19-7-2016 16:19:38
 Demand: 174   Event: 213.001   Object/State: 6949/0   Tier: 0   Start: 1609020800   Duration: 390   At: 19-7-2016 16:19:38

++ EVENT PLAN of DEMAND 174 ++
===============================

event_time(213.001,1,1609020800,1609021430)
event_time(212.001,1,1609010800,1609011430)

I want to get every thing between

++ PLANNING ITERATIONS of DEMAND 337 ++
=========================================

And

++ EVENT PLAN of DEMAND 174 ++
===============================

The results I expect to get is:

Demand: 337   Event: 1189.001   Object/State: 7058/0   Tier: 0   Start: 1608130700   Duration: 90   At: 19-7-2016 16:19:36
Demand: 337   Event: 1190.001   Object/State: 7059/0   Tier: 0   Start: 1608130830   Duration: 330   At: 19-7-2016 16:19:36
Demand: 337   Event: 1191.001   Object/State: 7060/0   Tier: 0   Start: 1608140000   Duration: 360   At: 19-7-2016 16:19:36
Demand: 174   Event: 212.001   Object/State: 6948/0   Tier: 0   Start: 1609010800   Duration: 390   At: 19-7-2016 16:19:38
Demand: 174   Event: 213.001   Object/State: 6949/0   Tier: 0   Start: 1609020800   Duration: 390   At: 19-7-2016 16:19:38

I tried to solved it myself and i got up to some point, but it returns the first match up to the end of the text.

This is the regular expression i used:

Demand:(?s)(.*)[+][+]

Online Example

This works on the online example i gave in the question but it doesn't work in this site, why is that? regexstorm.net/tester — Silagy
– Silagy, Commented Aug 24, 2016 at 6:10

Israel Unterman · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-24 06:14:51Z

1

I think the best way would be to just find all the Demand: ... lines.

You could do this with the following regex:

(?m)Demand:\s+.*$

This regex finds one line of the type you want. You need to use the function in whatever language/library you use that searches for all the strings that match that regex in you text.

The (?m) at the beginning sets the m option, which stands for multiline, so that the $ will match the end of the line and not the end of the entire txt.

After that the regex is quite simple. It searches for Demmand: followed by at least one space, then everything until the end of the line. The regex by default doesn't expand the . search across lines, and thus is limited to the line it scans. But had it expanded (like by using also the option s inside the preceding parenthesis) you would have had to update the regex to (?m)Demand:\s+.*?$ - that is add the ? symbol to make the search until the end of the line non greedy.

edited Aug 24, 2016 at 6:14

answered Aug 24, 2016 at 6:11

Israel Unterman

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1 Comment

Silagy Over a year ago

Nice! You understood what i wanted to achieve! Thanks!

CoronA · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-24 06:08:27Z

0

Your example is line based, so from my point of view the best solution would be to parse and compare the lines - no magic with regular expressions.

If you want to solve this with regular expressions, first try to find the anchors. I asume == would be a good beginning and ++ an ending. Between these anchors use a non-greedy (not the question mark) dotall:

==\s(.*?)\+\+ (use mode DOTALL, which would be a trailing s in your online example)

Then extract the first submatch group, which is the text you want.

answered Aug 24, 2016 at 6:08

CoronA

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