Extract string using regex

Question

How can I extract the content (how are you) from the string:

<string xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/2003/10/Serialization/">how are you</string>. 

Can I use regex for the purpose? if possible whats suitable regex for it.

Note: I dont want to use split function for extract the result. Also can you suggest some links to learn regex for a beginner.

I am using python2.7.2

Answer 1

You could use a regular expression for this (as Joey demonstrates).

However if your XML document is any bigger than this one-liner you could not since XML is not a regular language.

Use BeautifulSoup (or another XML parser) instead:

>>> from BeautifulSoup import BeautifulSoup
>>> xml_as_str = '<string xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/2003/10/Serialization/">how are you</string>. '
>>> soup = BeautifulSoup(xml_as_str)
>>> print soup.text
how are you.

Or...

>>> for string_tag in soup.findAll('string'):
...     print string_tag.text
... 
how are you

Answer 2

(?<=<string xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/2003/10/Serialization/">)[^<]+(?=</string>)

would match what you want, as a trivial example.

(?<=<)[^<]+

would, too. It all depends a bit on how your input is formatted exactly.

Answer 3

Try with following regex:

/<[^>]*>(.*?)</

Answer 4

This will match a generic HTML tag (Replace "string" with the tag you want to match):

/<string[^<]*>(.*?)<\/string>/i

(i=case insensitive)