Extract xml as string between two strings

Question

How can I extract someXml ?

frame 0
    push 'this'
    getVariable
    push 'g_data_1343488'
    push ' 

    someXml'

    setMember
end // of frame 0

I'm trying to use RegEx but i'm unsuccessful with it :

foreach (var match in Regex.Matches(file, @"(?<=push ').*(?=')"))

Problem with this one : I don't want to have for exemple 'g_data_1343488' or 'this' to be grabbed.

so you want the text between last 'push' and 'setMember'? – Dmitrii Dovgopolyi Nov 15 '12 at 11:53 — Dmitrii Dovgopolyi, Nov 15 '12 at 11:53
yes ! i want to grab someXml (and not someXml') – graph1ZzLle Nov 15 '12 at 11:54 — graph1ZzLle, Nov 15 '12 at 11:54

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:48

Here is one possibility. It is a regex that tries to recognize the contents between the single quotes as XML. It's not a perfect regex for this. It really depends on your requirements if it is ok to use. The more accurate the regex has to be, the more difficult it becomes to read. As it is, this expression will not match all XML and will match some invalid XML as well.

For example this regex will match tags with names that start with numbers. It would also match XML closing tags with attributes. You could tweak it depending on your needs.

Here it is:

push\s+'\s*<(\w+)(?:\s+\w+=(?:"[^"]*"|'[^']*'))*>(?:[^<]+|(?!</\1>)</?\w+(?:\s+\w+=(?:"[^"]*"|'[^']*'))*\s*/?>)*</\1>\s*'

Here is a breakdown of the expression. The start of the push statement:

push\s+'\s*

Detect the root XML tag and capture its name. Allow for attributes that are single and double quote delimited.:

<(\w+)(?:\s+\w+=(?:"[^"]*"|'[^']*'))*>

Loop through all the inner tags and text elements inside the root tag. Allow for attributes that are single and double quote delimited.

(?:[^<]+|(?!</\1>)</?\w+(?:\s+\w+=(?:"[^"]*"|'[^']*'))*\s*/?>)*

Capture the closing root tag.

</\1>\s*'

You could also try simply capturing the push commands and run their values through a function like in this solution: How to check for valid xml in string input before calling .LoadXml()

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 15 '12 at 12:50

0

var allMatches = Regex.Matches(text, @"(frame.*push ')(.*?)(?='.*end)", RegexOptions.Singleline);

foreach (Match matches in allMatches)
{
    String somexml = matches.Groups[2].Value;
}

answered Nov 15 '12 at 12:50

Dmitrii Dovgopolyi

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P.s. if we put first group in ?<= then gready .* will not work. – Dmitrii Dovgopolyi Nov 15 '12 at 12:52

Extract xml as string between two strings

2 Answers2