Easiest way to parse HTML in C++

Asked Oct 28 '14 at 16:13

Active Oct 28 '14 at 17:08

Viewed 41 times

I'm using curl to get an HTML document. From this document, I want to get the name & value of any input field.

However, after many tries, my C++ regex still doesn't work and I'm starting to loose hope.

I'm using the default c++11 regex which use the ECMAScript syntax

Here's my code

void    regexFind(std::string &str)
{
  std::string   regex = "value=\"(.*)\"";
  std::smatch   m;
  std::regex    e(regex);

  if (std::regex_search(str, m, e))
    {
      std::cout << m[0] << std::endl;
    }
  else
     std::cout << "No match" << std::endl;
}

void    htmlRegexTest()
{
  std::string   str;

  str = "<div><input name=\"somteTest\" type=\"hidden\" value=\"&#x2713;\" /></div>";
  regexFind(str);
}

So basically, I've tried many many regexp but couldn't match anything.

I'm not sure that regexp is the better solution for this problem so if you have a better solution than regex it would be also great.

Thanks in advance for your help.

-- Edit --

Okay, so it seems that using regex to parse HTML is a bad solution. So change my question a little, what is the best solution (aka easiest) to parse HTML in c++ ?

edited Oct 28 '14 at 17:08

asked Oct 28 '14 at 16:13

Gary Olsson

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6

"I know, I'll use regex *and* C++". Now you have *three* problems. – Robert Harvey Oct 28 '14 at 16:15
`value=\"(.*)\"` should be `value=\"(.*?)\"` – vks Oct 28 '14 at 16:15
1

Parsing HTML using regex is probably a very bad idea. – πάντα ῥεῖ Oct 28 '14 at 16:17
@vks value=\"(.*?)\" doesn't work either. – Gary Olsson Oct 28 '14 at 16:50
@RobertHarvey well I know it's probably not the best solution so if you have another suggestion I would gladly try it – Gary Olsson Oct 28 '14 at 16:51
1

Use an HTML parser, a tool specifically designed to do what you want. – Robert Harvey Oct 28 '14 at 17:03

Easiest way to parse HTML in C++

-- Edit --

0 Answers0