Regex to replace text between two strings c#

Question

I have the following string :

 <span><style>
.G9cT{display:none}
.Q-Bv{display:inline}
</style><span class="G9cT">74</span><span style="display:none">100</span><span class="G9cT">100</span><div style="display:none">100</div><span style="display:none">122</span><span class="G9cT">122</span><div style="display:none">122</div><span style="display:none">178</span><span class="G9cT">178</span><span class="165">189</span><span class="G9cT">202</span><div style="display:none">202</div><span style="display:none">214</span><span class="G9cT">214</span><div style="display:none">214</div><span style="display:none">230</span><div style="display:none">230</div><span class="Q-Bv">.</span><span style="display:none">53</span><span class="G9cT">53</span><span class="G9cT">68</span><div style="display:none">68</div><span style="display:none">81</span><span class="G9cT">81</span><div style="display:none">81</div><span style="display: inline">112</span><span style="display:none">124</span><span class="G9cT">124</span><div style="display:none">127</div><span style="display:none">129</span><span class="G9cT">129</span><span></span><span class="G9cT">151</span><div style="display:none">155</div><span style="display:none">194</span><div style="display:none">194</div><span style="display:none">233</span><span class="G9cT">233</span><span></span><span class="G9cT">234</span><span class="Q-Bv">.</span><span></span><div style="display:none">61</div>88<div style="display:none">98</div><span style="display:none">105</span><span class="G9cT">105</span><div style="display:none">105</div><div style="display:none">117</div><span style="display:none">197</span><span class="G9cT">197</span><div style="display:none">197</div><span style="display: inline">.</span><span class="Q-Bv">65</span><span style="display:none">147</span><div style="display:none">147</div></span>

And i am using Regex to replace the above string with Empty in between two tags <span style="display:none"> * </span> . I am using the code below:

System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex regex = new System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex("<span style=\"display:none\">(.*)</span>");
var v = regex.Match(txxt);
string output = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(txxt, "<span style=\"display:none\">(.*)</span>", "");

But the above replaces the string from first <span style=\"display:none\"> till end.I have tried different combinations. Any advise.

yup, check this out: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1732348/regex-match-open-tags-except-xhtml-self-contained-tags — G.Y, Apr 07 '14 at 05:37

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 07 '14 at 05:35

4

use .*? instead , its lazy , your .* is greedy.

the greedy regex eats up everything after the match it gets. while .*? is reluctant to match and will only match till where the condition is satisfied

answered Apr 07 '14 at 05:35

aelor

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Perfect thank you sir, and what if i only want to replace the tags but not the content inside? – confusedMind Apr 07 '14 at 05:39
@confusedMind depends on which tag you want to replace. you always have an option of lookahead or lookbehind – aelor Apr 07 '14 at 05:42
@aelor repalce tha tags found using the expression above but not the content inside. – confusedMind Apr 07 '14 at 05:42
@confusedMind you mean to say that you wan to replace the `span style="display:none"` with something wlse – aelor Apr 07 '14 at 05:44
@aelor example : replace 123 to only 123 . But i cannot use simple replace function need to use regex as above. – confusedMind Apr 07 '14 at 05:45
replace `(.*?)` with `\1` or `$1` whichever backreference your lang suppots – aelor Apr 07 '14 at 05:46
@aelor nope it actually replaces the string to \1 or $1 . – confusedMind Apr 07 '14 at 05:51
i ll show you an example here : http://regex101.com/r/aV8cZ2 see the resulting text – aelor Apr 07 '14 at 05:54
@confusedMind for c# i think you use it like this : `Regex.Replace(text, pattern, "$1")` – aelor Apr 07 '14 at 05:56

Regex to replace text between two strings c#

1 Answers1