Find every word between >< with regex?

Question

I have an xml file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>

<string name="name">word1</string>
<string name="namee">word2</string>
<string name="nameee">word3</string>

</resources>

I want to find every word between > <. Therefore word1, word2 and word3. I have written some code but that regex expression find only the first word (word1).

    private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        if (openFileDialog1.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
        {
            StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(openFileDialog1.FileName);
            string s = sr.ReadToEnd();
            richTextBox1.Text = s;
        }

        string txt = richTextBox1.Text;
        string foundWords = Regex.Match(txt, @"\>(\w+)\<").Groups[1].Value;
        richTextBox1.Text = foundWords;

    }

I want to find every word between > < and display it in a rich textbox.

possible duplicate of [RegEx match open tags except XHTML self-contained tags](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1732348/regex-match-open-tags-except-xhtml-self-contained-tags) — Alexei Levenkov, Nov 05 '13 at 20:28
Your input should not be an `XML` document and your requirement will be acceptable, if it's an `XML` document, I think you can do all the tasks with some XML parser. — King King, Nov 05 '13 at 20:30

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 05 '13 at 20:25

You should probably look at parsing XML with something else baked into .NET.

Having said that:

You're only getting the first one because you're using Match. (matches a single value) Try using Matches instead (returns a collection of Match values that you can iterate through).

Try:

list<String> foundWords = new List<String>();
var foundMatches = regex.matches(txt, @"\>(\w+)<");
foreach(match m in foundMatches)
{
     foundWords.add(m.Groups[1].Value);
}
//do something with list of foundWords

This is an awful suggestion to parse XML with regular expressions - if OP wanted to use regular expression for something it does not mean it suitable for task. — Alexei Levenkov, Nov 05 '13 at 20:26

burning_LEGION · Accepted Answer · 2013-11-05T20:40:56.537

1

use method Regex.Matches() to capture MatchCollection

private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    if (openFileDialog1.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
    {
        StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(openFileDialog1.FileName);
        string s = sr.ReadToEnd();
        richTextBox1.Text = s;
    }

    string txt = richTextBox1.Text;
    var foundWords = Regex.Matches(txt, @"(?<=>)(\w+?)(?=<)");
    richTextBox1.Text = string.Join("\n", foundWords.Cast<Match>().Select(x=>x.Value).ToArray());
}

edited Nov 05 '13 at 20:40

answered Nov 05 '13 at 20:26

burning_LEGION

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It is giving me that error Error: The call is ambiguous between the following methods or properties: 'string.Join(string, System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable)' and 'string.Join(string, params object[])' – orglce Nov 05 '13 at 20:35
@orglce i lost Select :) fixed – burning_LEGION Nov 05 '13 at 20:37
How to find strings with spaces. for ex: App Name – orglce Nov 05 '13 at 20:49
write new regex, f.e. `(?<=>)([\w ]+?)(?=<)` – burning_LEGION Nov 05 '13 at 20:53
how to find strings with multiple words? for ex: App Name App Name – orglce Nov 05 '13 at 20:58

Find every word between >< with regex?

2 Answers2