regex: Parsing html tags in other tags / links and titles

Robin Cruise · Mar 7, 2021, 12:02 AM

@guy038 said in regex: Parsing html tags in other tags / links and titles:

Hello, @robin-cruise,

In your first text, there are these numbers :
 >Page 1 (34)</a>
 >Page 2 (29)</a>
 >Page 3 (11)</a>
And, in you second text, there are these other numbers :
 > Page 66 27
 > Page 67 24
 > Page 68 07
How are all these numbers connected ?!

BR

guy038

hello, sir. The numbers represents the number of the articles which are included in that section. Every page, such as Page 1 … Page 66, are fictitious names. In fact there are Management, Finance, Maths...etc)

Yes, the numbers are not the same in the first text and in the second text.

@Alan-Kilborn good day, sir. I write this topic, because there are thousands of topics with regex here, and many of them have a solution. Please, be kind, and write a message to all that thousands of people which opened discussions about regex. And, also, copy-paste your messaje for the next thousand who will write in the future. Tell them to go other place…

can you do that, so that everyone can understand? Or, are you discriminating and only thinking about me?

Alan Kilborn · Mar 7, 2021, 12:20 AM

@Robin-Cruise said in regex: Parsing html tags in other tags / links and titles:

Or, are you discriminating and only thinking about me?

Nope, you’re just one of the worst offenders, i.e. “takers”.
But you’ve helped me to try to set a strategy here.
Hopefully it will be fruitful.

guy038 · Mar 7, 2021, 1:14 PM

Hi, @rogin-cruise and All,

So, globally, your have initial text like below :

<ul id="myNavigation">
¤¤¤¤<li><a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">••••</a></li>
¤¤¤¤<li><a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">••••</a></li>
¤¤¤¤<li><a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">••••</a></li>
....
....
....
¤¤¤¤<li><a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">••••</a></li>
</ul>

which should be changed into :

<div class="categories-name">
¤¤¤¤<a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">
¤¤¤¤<p class="font-16 color-grey text-capitalize"><i class="fa fa-angle-right font-14 color-blue mr-1"></i> •••• <span>••••</span> </p>
¤¤¤¤</a>
</div>
<div class="categories-name">
¤¤¤¤<a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">
¤¤¤¤<p class="font-16 color-grey text-capitalize"><i class="fa fa-angle-right font-14 color-blue mr-1"></i> •••• <span>••••</span> </p>
¤¤¤¤</a>
</div>
<div class="categories-name">
¤¤¤¤<a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">
¤¤¤¤<p class="font-16 color-grey text-capitalize"><i class="fa fa-angle-right font-14 color-blue mr-1"></i> •••• <span>••••</span> </p>
¤¤¤¤</a>
</div>
....
....
....
<div class="categories-name">
¤¤¤¤<a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">
¤¤¤¤<p class="font-16 color-grey text-capitalize"><i class="fa fa-angle-right font-14 color-blue mr-1"></i> •••• <span>••••</span> </p>
¤¤¤¤</a>
</div>

where :

All the zones ••••, either in the search part and the expected replacement, are arbitrary and not connected to each other
All the zones ¤¤¤¤ are leading space characters, whatever their number

More generally, you would like that any line, as below, in a <ul .............</ul> section :

¤¤¤¤<li><a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">••••</a></li>

is changed into :

<div class="categories-name">
¤¤¤¤<a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">
¤¤¤¤<p class="font-16 color-grey text-capitalize"><i class="fa fa-angle-right font-14 color-blue mr-1"></i> •••• <span>••••</span> </p>
¤¤¤¤</a>
</div>

If so, I think it should be possible to create an appropriate S/R, with that important consequence : AFTER the global replacement that I will provide you, in a next post :

You’ll have to replace any literal •••• zone with the real data for each of them
You’ll have to replace any literal ¤¤¤¤ zone with the exact number of leading space chars required

I cannot find of a best solution. It’s just your data, anyway ! What’s your feelings about it ?

Best Regards,

guy038

Robin Cruise · Mar 7, 2021, 5:01 PM

@Robin-Cruise said in regex: Parsing html tags in other tags / links and titles:

<a href=“https://my-website.com/page-66.html ” title=“Page 66”>

hello. So, basicaly, this line is almost the same in both parts, having: <a href and title=, even the name of the link and the name of the title is different. For this it can be done a parsing.

<a href="https://my-website.com/page-1.html" title="Page 1">
with this
<a href="https://my-website.com/page-66.html" title="Page 66">

the last part is a little tricky, I have to import the values PAGE and NUMBER OF THE PAGE, for one place to another:

Page 1 (34)</a> must become  Page 66 

and

(34)</a></li> should become 27 </a>

guy038 · Mar 7, 2021, 5:41 PM

Hi, @robin-cruise,

Sorry, but I still do not see what you want to achieve ??!!

How, on earth, do you think a regular expression can make the link between Page 1 and Page 66 or between numbers (34) and 27 ??

BR

guy038

Alan Kilborn · Mar 7, 2021, 6:06 PM

…and then some of the takers don’t even think through the logistics of their problem first, before asking for help, so the net result is that they waste the time of the helpers and any of the thread’s readers. :-(

Robin Cruise · Mar 9, 2021, 2:37 PM

simple, with the formula:

FIND: (FROM-HERE(.*?)TO-HERE.*?)(FROM-HERE).*?(TO HERE)

REPLACE BY \1\3\2\4

for example, the first part:

<ul id="myNavigation">
    <li><a href="https://my-website.com/page-1.html" title="Page 1">Page 1 (34)</a></li>
</ul>

and this:

<div class="categories-name">
   <a href="https://my-website.com/page-66.html" title="Page 66">
   <p class="font-16 color-grey text-capitalize"><i class="fa fa-angle-right font-14 color-blue mr-1"></i> Page 66 <span>27</span> </p>
  </a>
</div>

Please test this formula, and you will see that the link from the first text will be parse/copy to the second text.

FIND: (<li><a href="https://my-website.com/(.*?)" title=".*?)(\h+<a href="https://my-website.com/).*?(" title=")

REPLACE BY: \1\3\2\4

Now, the problem is that I must replace each part differently.

Robin Cruise · Mar 9, 2021, 2:43 PM

also, the same basic formula, for another part:

FIND: (title="(.*?)">.*?)(mr-1"> ).*?()

REPLACE BY: \1\3\2 \4

Check this 2 regex formulas I wrote in the last 2 posts, and see what has changed

guy038 · Mar 9, 2021, 7:46 PM

Hi, @Robin-cruise and All,

When I said, in my previous post :

More generally, you would like that any line, as below, in a <ul .............</ul> section :

¤¤¤¤<li><a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">••••</a></li>

is changed into :

<div class="categories-name">
¤¤¤¤<a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">
¤¤¤¤<p class="font-16 color-grey text-capitalize"><i class="fa fa-angle-right font-14 color-blue mr-1"></i> •••• <span>••••</span> </p>
¤¤¤¤</a>
</div>

This can be achieved with the following regex S/R, without any group :

SEARCH ^\h*<li><a href="https://my\-website.com/.+?\.html" title=".+?">.+?</a></li>

REPLACE <div class="categories-name">\r\n <a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">\r\n •••••••• \r\n </a>\r\n</div>

So, from any initial line, inside a <ul .............</ul> section, as below :

            <li><a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">••••</a></li>

You get these output lines :

<div class="categories-name">
    <a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">
    <p class="font-16 color-grey text-capitalize"><i class="fa fa-angle-right font-14 color-blue mr-1"></i>••••<span>••••</span> </p>
    </a>
</div>

Just try it out !

Now, the problem is HOW to perform this S/R, ONLY on lines inside these <ul> sections, below :

<ul id="myNavigation">
....
....
....
</ul>

To do that, we’ll use, again, the generic regex, already discussed, with :

BSR = <ul id="myNavigation">
ESR = (?!</ul>)
SR = ^\h*<li><a href="https://my\-website.com/.+?\.html" title=".+?">.+?</a></li>
RR = <div class="categories-name">\r\n <a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">\r\n •••• •••• \r\n </a>\r\n</div>

Leading to this general S/R :

SEARCH (?s-i)(<ul id="myNavigation">|(?!\A)\G)((?!</ul>).)*?\K^\h*<li><a href="https://my\-website.com/.+?\.html" title=".+?">.+?</a></li>

REPLACE <div class="categories-name">\r\n <a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">\r\n •••••••• \r\n </a>\r\n</div>

Notes :

You must use N++ v7.9.1 or a later release, which correctly handles the \A assertion !
In replacement, everything is literal, but the parts \r\n, standing for Windows EOL
Of course, AFTER the replacement, you’ll have to change any •••• zone with its exact contents !

Let’s try this final regex S/R :

Place this sample text, below, in a N++ new tab :

...
...
<ul id="myNavigation">
    <li><a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">••••</a></li>
    <li><a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">••••</a></li>
    <li><a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">••••</a></li>
....
....
....
    <li><a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">••••</a></li>
</ul>

    <li><a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">••••</a></li>
    <li><a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">••••</a></li>
    <li><a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">••••</a></li>

<ul id="myNavigation">
    <li><a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">••••</a></li>
....
....
....
    <li><a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">••••</a></li>
    <li><a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">••••</a></li>
    <li><a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">••••</a></li>
</ul>


    <li><a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">••••</a></li>
    <li><a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">••••</a></li>
    <li><a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">••••</a></li>

Perform the last regex S/R, above
You’re left with the expected text :

...
...
<ul id="myNavigation">
<div class="categories-name">
    <a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">
    <p class="font-16 color-grey text-capitalize"><i class="fa fa-angle-right font-14 color-blue mr-1"></i>••••<span>••••</span> </p>
    </a>
</div>
<div class="categories-name">
    <a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">
    <p class="font-16 color-grey text-capitalize"><i class="fa fa-angle-right font-14 color-blue mr-1"></i>••••<span>••••</span> </p>
    </a>
</div>
<div class="categories-name">
    <a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">
    <p class="font-16 color-grey text-capitalize"><i class="fa fa-angle-right font-14 color-blue mr-1"></i>••••<span>••••</span> </p>
    </a>
</div>
....
....
....
<div class="categories-name">
    <a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">
    <p class="font-16 color-grey text-capitalize"><i class="fa fa-angle-right font-14 color-blue mr-1"></i>••••<span>••••</span> </p>
    </a>
</div>
</ul>

    <li><a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">••••</a></li>
    <li><a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">••••</a></li>
    <li><a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">••••</a></li>

<ul id="myNavigation">
<div class="categories-name">
    <a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">
    <p class="font-16 color-grey text-capitalize"><i class="fa fa-angle-right font-14 color-blue mr-1"></i>••••<span>••••</span> </p>
    </a>
</div>
....
....
....
<div class="categories-name">
    <a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">
    <p class="font-16 color-grey text-capitalize"><i class="fa fa-angle-right font-14 color-blue mr-1"></i>••••<span>••••</span> </p>
    </a>
</div>
<div class="categories-name">
    <a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">
    <p class="font-16 color-grey text-capitalize"><i class="fa fa-angle-right font-14 color-blue mr-1"></i>••••<span>••••</span> </p>
    </a>
</div>
<div class="categories-name">
    <a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">
    <p class="font-16 color-grey text-capitalize"><i class="fa fa-angle-right font-14 color-blue mr-1"></i>••••<span>••••</span> </p>
    </a>
</div>
</ul>


    <li><a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">••••</a></li>
    <li><a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">••••</a></li>
    <li><a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">••••</a></li>

You can verify that the remaining lines <li><a href="https://my-website.com/••••.html" title="••••">••••</a></li> are only lines, which are outside a <ul id="myNavigation">............</ul> multi-lines section, so not replaced at all !

Best Regards,

guy038

Oups !! I forgot to delete, either, the lines <ul id="myNavigation"> and </ul>. Quite easy with :

SEARCH (?-i)<(ul id="myNavigation"|/ul)>\R

REPLACE Leave EMPTY

Robin Cruise · Mar 9, 2021, 9:29 PM

This post is deleted!

Robin Cruise · Mar 9, 2021, 9:39 PM

@guy038 yes, sir. Thank you. You succeded to transform the part 1 with part 2.

My problem, or I didn’t understand to good, are those ••••

How can I change those many •••• with different words and numbers ? If I have 200 lines, I need 2 months to change those ••••

I return to my regex,

please .matches newlines and run this 2 regex

FIND: (<li><a href="https://my-website.com/(.*?)" title=".*?)(\h+<a href="https://my-website.com/).*?(" title=")

REPLACE BY: \1\3\2\4

and

FIND: (title="(.*?)">.*?)(mr-1"> ).*?()

REPLACE BY: \1\3\2 \4

With this 2 regex, I manage to make a parsing. I copy a information from part 1 to part 2. Of course, is an example of how the formula should work

guy038 · Mar 9, 2021, 9:52 PM

Hello @Robin-cruise,

If you want me to test your two regex S/R ( Let’s say respectively, S/R A and S/R B )

I need an exact raw text which must be processed with the SR A
I need any additional action, if any, which is to be done, after processing S/R A and before processing S/R B
I need an exact raw text which must be processed with the S/R B ( Of course, it may be the result of the S/R A on the initial text )

BR

guy038

Robin Cruise · Mar 11, 2021, 9:25 AM

@guy038 @Alan-Kilborn This is the solution. Yes, it can be done with regex, but must integrated in powershell. Works super !

$file1 = 'c:\Folder1\file1.html'
$file2 = 'c:\Folder1\file2.html'
$result = 'c:\Folder1\result.html'
$link=@()
$title=@()
$number=@()
Get-Content -Path $file1 -Delimiter '</li>'|ForEach-Object{
    $_|ForEach-Object{
        if($_ -match '(?<=href=").+?(?=")'){$link += $Matches.Values}
        if($_ -match '(?<=title=").+?(?=")'){$title += $Matches.Values}
        if($_ -match '(?<=\()\d+(?=\))'){$number += $Matches.Values}
    }
}
$content = Get-Content -Path $file2 -Delimiter '</div>'
for($i=0;$i -lt $content.Count;$i++){
    $content[$i] | ForEach-Object{
        if($_ -match '(?<=href=").+?(?=")'){$link2 = $Matches.Values}
        if($_ -match '(?<=title=").+?(?=")'){$title2 = $Matches.Values}
        if($_ -match '(?<=<span>)\d+(?=</span>)'){$number2 = $Matches.Values}
    }
    $content[$i] -replace $link2, $link[$i] -replace $title2, $title[$i] -replace $number2, $number[$i] | Out-File -FilePath $result -Append
}

Source: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/307621/powershell-copy-strings-from-some-html-tags-to-ano.html

Alan Kilborn · Mar 11, 2021, 12:31 PM

@Robin-Cruise said in regex: Parsing html tags in other tags / links and titles:

This is the solution. Yes, it can be done with regex, but must integrated in powershell.

Ok… but this is really off-topic for a Notepad++ forum.
Whatever you’re doing could I’m sure be done in many different ways.
This isn’t a general “data manipulation” forum.

guy038 · Mar 11, 2021, 12:43 PM

Hi, @Robin-cruise,

Nice ! So you, finally, got a working solution.

Out of curiosity, could you provide me a short sample of your initial files file1.html with several sections <ul......</ul> and file2.html and the corresponding result.html file, created by your Powershell script

This could help me to understand which you really wanted to achieve and why I could not imagine about suitable and useful regexes !

Thanks for your cooperation !

Best Regards,

guy038

Robin Cruise · Mar 11, 2021, 2:56 PM

File1.html

<ul id="myNavigation">
    <li><a href="https://my-website.com/page-1.html" title="Page 1">Page 1 (34)</a></li>
    <li><a href="https://my-website.com/page-2.html" title="Page 2">Page 2 (29)</a></li>
    <li><a href="https://my-website.com/page-3.html" title="Page-3">Page 3 (11)</a></li>
</ul>

File2.html

<div class="categories-name">
   <a href="https://my-website.com/page-66.html" title="Page 66">
   <p class="font-16 color-grey text-capitalize"><i class="fa fa-angle-right font-14 color-blue mr-1"></i> Page 66 <span>27</span> </p>
  </a>
</div>
<div class="categories-name">
   <a href="https://my-website.com/page-67.html" title="Page 67">
   <p class="font-16 color-grey text-capitalize"><i class="fa fa-angle-right font-14 color-blue mr-1"></i> Page 67 <span>24</span> </p>
   </a>
</div>
<div class="categories-name">
   <a href="https://my-website.com/page-68.html" title="Page 68">
   <p class="font-16 color-grey text-capitalize"><i class="fa fa-angle-right font-14 color-blue mr-1"></i> Page 68 <span>07</span> </p>
   </a>
</div>

@guy038 @Alan-Kilborn
Thank you. Please understand that finding this solution, was not easy.

First, I knew that @guy038 is one of the best REGEX developer on earth. He already gave a solution, in another post, to a PARSING html. so I thought he would succeed.

Second, in another post, someone else gave a solution with PowerShell, of another problem. I remember also that post.

So, I knew that this problem can be resolve, but I had to try both options.

Now, maybe will be a better way to handle regex and files, by integrate notepad++ them into another program such as PowerShell.

guy038 · Mar 11, 2021, 3:01 PM

Hi, @robin-cruise,

But, could you provide, also, the result.html file ?

Thanks

BR

guy038

Robin Cruise · Mar 11, 2021, 3:01 PM

@Alan-Kilborn said in regex: Parsing html tags in other tags / links and titles:

but this is really off-topic for a Notepad++ forum

No, sir. Is an opportunity to understand that a problem has many solution, even if people told you that isn’t possible.

By the way, the same problem can be done in LINUX, much easier…with bash script, but that’s another story.

Robin Cruise · Mar 11, 2021, 3:06 PM

@guy038 result.html is just a blank file, put in the same folder with File1.html and File2.html

After you run the code in PowerShell, the output result will appear into result.html

please test the PowerShell code. You will see in result.html the structure html from the File2.html but with the values extracted from File1.html

guy038 · Mar 11, 2021, 3:09 PM

Hi, @robin-cruise,

OK but could you provide the result.html file AFTER running the Powershell script !

BR

guy038

Sorry, with my old XP SP3 machine is a bit out of date !