Parsing XML using regex and grabbing the value inbetween tags

Question

I have a regular expression that I use to grab data between two sets of id's for example <CLASSCOD>70</CLASSCOD> The regular expression I use is (?<=<CLASSCOD>)(?:[^<]|<(?!/CLASSCOD))* which works in most case but when i have a single value like this <CLASSCOD>N</CLASSCOD> it says there are no matches.

The whole data string looks like this

<DATE>0601</DATE>
<YEAR>11</YEAR>
<AGENCY>Department of the Interior</AGENCY>
<OFFICE>Bureau of Indian Affairs</OFFICE>
<LOCATION>BIA - DAPM</LOCATION>
<ZIP>85004</ZIP>
<CLASSCOD>N</CLASSCOD>
<OFFADD>Contracting Office - Western Region 2600 N. Central Avenue, 4th Floor Phoenix AZ 85004</OFFADD>
<SUBJECT>Boiler Replacement</SUBJECT>
<SOLNBR>A11PS00463</SOLNBR>
<RESPDATE>061711</RESPDATE>
<ARCHDATE>05312012</ARCHDATE>
<CONTACT>Geraldine M. Williams Purchasing Agent 6023794087 [email protected];<a href="mailto:[email protected]">Point of Contact above, or if none listed, contact the IDEAS EC HELP DESK for assistance</a>
</CONTACT>
<LINK><URL>https://www.fbo.gov/spg/DOI/BIA/RestonVA/A11PS00463/listing.html<LINKDESC>Link To Document</LINK>
<EMAIL></EMAIL>
<EMAIL>
  [email protected]
  <EMAILDESC>
    Point of Contact above, or if none listed, contact the IDEAS EC HELP DESK for assistance
  </EMAILDESC>
</EMAIL>
<SETASIDE>Total Small Business</SETASIDE>
<POPCOUNTRY>USA</POPCOUNTRY>
<POPZIP>85634</POPZIP>
<POPADDRESS>BIE Tohono O'odham High School, Sells, AZ</POPADDRESS>

Any Suggestions as to the reason?

Thanks

I would suggest using XPath or some other XML technology than using regular expressions. — Richard Schneider
– Richard Schneider, Commented Jun 3, 2011 at 23:14
I just tried your regex against the example that you said didn't work, and it returned a match. — Daniel Mann
– Daniel Mann, Commented Jun 3, 2011 at 23:19

rid · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-03 23:30:28Z

2

Something simpler should work:

<CLASSCOD>(.+?)</CLASSCOD>

Example:

Match match = Regex.Match(input, @"<CLASSCOD>(.+?)</CLASSCOD>");
if (match.Success) {
    string value = match.Groups[1].Value;
    Console.WriteLine(value);
}

edited Jun 3, 2011 at 23:30

answered Jun 3, 2011 at 23:17

rid

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2 Comments

Jim Over a year ago

That gives me my whole string back so for example "<CLASSCOD>N</CLASSCOD>" return "<CLASSCOD>N</CLASSCOD>" when all I want back is the value in between, In this case "N" other cases 70 sometimes more

Jim Over a year ago

Very Nice, I see what you mean.

eulerfx · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-03 23:19:36Z

1

If you would like to extract the value inside the brackets you may use the following RegEx:

<([^>]+)>([^<]*)</\1>

For this scenario there is no need to use the lookahead and lookbehind operators.

answered Jun 3, 2011 at 23:19

eulerfx

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1 Comment

Jim Over a year ago

I updated the question. There is more then just this one bracket of data

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