C# Regex remove character within the element name only, without replacing the value

Question

I want to get rid of ':' within the XML elements tags only, using regex in C#.

I am aware that parsing the document is the way to go instead of regex..but it is a legacy project and it uses Regex to replace the XML Document content. Not the ideal method to process XML Document, but nothing I can do about.

I am not good with regular expressions and just can't figure out a way to replace ':' only from the Element Tags and not values...

For example <tag:name> the value with the tag http://www.example.com </tag:name>

I want to replace : with _ only within the element name and not value. So the outcome should be :

<tag_name> the value with the tag http://www.example.com </tag_name>

Any idea?

Thanks!

Brigand · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-08 02:24:24Z

2

This needle should do what you want:

<[^>]*(:)[^>]*>

The first pattern group will contain the (:) in the tag name. If you want to do a replacement you can replace (<[^>]*)(:)([^>]*>) with $1_$3 where $1 and $3 are sub-patterns.

answered Dec 8, 2011 at 2:24

Brigand

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6 Comments

NomadTraveler Over a year ago

Thanks for the reply. I am afraid it doesn't work as expected. I tried to replace using Regex.Replace(content, "(<[^>]*)(:)([^>]*>)", "_"), but it also replaces all the empty tags with '_'

Brigand Over a year ago

I believe you want, Regex.Replace(content, @"(<[^>]*)(:)([^>]*>)", "$1_$3").

NomadTraveler Over a year ago

Ah, my bad. Still not perfect though :| My XML file has an element, for example, <Assets:POS1_filedetails></Assets:POS1_filedetails>, and that doesn't convert to <Assets_POS1_file></Assets_POS1_file>

Elroy Flynn Over a year ago

frb, that works for me, in .net: [regex]::replace('<Assets:POS1_filedetails></Assets:POS1_filedetails>','(<[^>]*)(:)([^>]*>)','$1_$3')

Brigand Over a year ago

@Sharon, I think it should work there. If there were two or more colons in one tag, it would just replace the last one. (I don't think that's normal in XML, but I'm not sure.)

|

Michael Low · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-08 03:00:50Z

1

Does this work for you?

Regex tagRegex = new Regex("<[^>]+>");
yourXML = tagRegex.Replace(yourXML, delegate(Match thisMatch)
{
   return thisMatch.Value.Replace(":", "_");
});

answered Dec 8, 2011 at 3:00

Michael Low

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2 Comments

Michael Kay Over a year ago

It will actually replace colons appearing anywhere in a start tag, end tag, comment, or processing instruction, in text content if delimited by a CDATA section, and in various places in a DTD - including for example colons in an attribute name or attribute value, colons in a comment, or colons in the URI referring to an external DTD. Yes, you are right - regexes are not the way to do this.

Brigand Over a year ago

@mikel, maybe if you change your needle to something like <\s*[^\s=>]+, it would be more exclusive. That way it won't match attributes. You could go a bit further and say it can't start with !, <\s*[^!][^\s=>]+

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