Parsing XML data using RegEx

I have some data that I need to have stripped of all excess XML data. When I first volunteered to do this, I thought to myself, 'it's just excess text, how hard can that be?' :D oh how little did I know what RegEx is. I'm beating my head against a wall, and would just like someone to help get me going.

I followed along in this thread. But, I've had no such luck in figuring it out on my own without a little bit of coaxing.

So, here's my question, how do I strip out this excess data so that all I'm left with is the coach's name (it needs to be a variable for a combo box). So, that the coach of the team can make changes to his roster below his name. Or since the coach's name always stays the same, should I use RegEx.IsMatch() instead of trying to strip the excess data since it needs to be saved as XML anyway and sent back as a plain TXT file? So, many questions, that's why I'm coming to the gurus...!

and here's a sample of what my XML looks like....

- <team name="Sacramento" coach="Randy" teamid="1" picture="madison.gif" abbreviation="SAC" email="">
- <roster>
 <player name="Jose Fuentes" pos="QB1" /> 
 <player name="JoJo Jones" pos="RB1" /> 
 <player name="Johnnie Vee" pos="RB2" /> 
 <player name="Tom Waddle" pos="WR1" /> 
 <player name="Sherman Deary" pos="WR2" /> 
 <player name="Dan Graham" pos="TE1" /> 
 <player name="John Hall" pos="K" /> 
 <player name="CHA" pos="DEF" /> 
 <player name="Wheeler Chandells" /> 
 <player name="Carlin Patton" /> 
 <player name="Sidney Iverson" /> 
 <player name="Nicky Santoro" /> 
 </roster>
 </team>

(?i)<team[^>]+coach="(?<coach>[^"]*)"[^>]*>

(?i)<team[^>]+coach="(?<coach>[^"]*)"[^>]*>

Thank you.....I'll try it out when I get to the house.... :)

A.

again...no luck :(

any clue as to what I'm doing wrong...?

    Public Function ReturnValues(ByVal RegularExpression As String, ByVal mytext As String, ByVal item As String) As String()
       Dim myRegExp As New Regex(RegularExpression, RegexOptions.IgnoreCase)
       Dim Matchs As MatchCollection = myRegExp.Matches(mytext)
       Dim currentMatch As Match

       Dim matchedValues As New ArrayList()


       For Each currentMatch In Matchs
           Dim myCaptures As CaptureCollection = currentMatch.Groups(item).Captures
           Dim currentItem As Capture
           For Each currentItem In myCaptures
               matchedValues.Add(currentItem.Value)
           Next

       Next

       Return CType(matchedValues.ToArray(GetType(String)), String())
   End Function


   Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
       Dim myPattern As String = "\<team name="Sacramento"\(?i)<team[^>]+coach="(?<coach>[^"]*)"[^>]*>"
       Dim myText As String = "<team name="Sacramento" coach="Randy" teamid="1" picture="madison.gif" abbreviation="SAC" email="">"
       Dim oneValues() As String = ReturnValues(myPattern, myText, "coach1")
       'Dim twoValues() As String = ReturnValues(myPattern, myText, "itemtwo")
   End Sub

TIA,

A.

    
Public Function ExplicitTest() As ArrayList()
       Dim input As String = "<team name="Sacramento" coach="Randy" teamid="1" picture="madison.gif" abbreviation="SAC" email="">"
       ' THIS IS NOT THE REGEX I GAVE YOU
       ' Dim pattern As String = "\<team name="Sacramento"\(?i)<team[^>]+coach="(?<coach>[^"]*)"[^>]*>"
       Dim pattern As String = "(?i)<team[^>]+coach="(?<coach>[^"]*)"[^>]*>"
       Dim matches As MatchCollection = Regex.Matches(input, regex)
       Dim captures As New ArrayList(matches.Count)

       For Each match In matches
           captures.Add(match.Result("${coach}"))
       Next

       Return captures
   End Function

I dunno vb but that example should work. here's a c# example

ArrayList FooBar(string input)
{
string pattern = "(?i)<team[^>]+coach=\"(?<coach>[^\"]*)\"[^>]*>";
MatchCollection matches = Regex.Matches(input, pattern);
ArrayList captures = new ArrayList(matches.Count);
foreach(Match match in matches)
	captures.Add(match.Result("${coach}"));
return captures;
}

Why not create a class that loads that particular xml structure' date=' then write it out as a differenct xml file with only the nodes and attributes that are required?[/quote']

 

 

Fen, I'm completely open to suggestions.....I thought I knew VB, until I found out what regular expressions were. Whew!! They've thrown me for a loop

I hear that!

Regular expressions are entirely different langauge that were designed to parse text expression very well. I don't think that you need to use them for you particular circumstances.

I would use a couple of classes like this:

Public Class Team
   Private _Name As String
   Private _CoachName As String
   Private _ID As String
   Private _Picture As String 'could be an IMAGE object as well
   Private _NameAbbreviation As String
   Private _Email As String
   Private _Players As Collection

   Public Property Players() As Collection
       Get

       End Get
       Set(ByVal Value As Collection)

       End Set
   End Property

   Public Property Email() As String
       Get

       End Get
       Set(ByVal Value As String)

       End Set
   End Property

   Public Property NameAbbreviation() As String
       Get

       End Get
       Set(ByVal Value As String)

       End Set
   End Property

   Public Property Picture() As String
       Get

       End Get
       Set(ByVal Value As String)

       End Set
   End Property

   Public Property ID() As String
       Get

       End Get
       Set(ByVal Value As String)

       End Set
   End Property

   Public Property CoachName() As String
       Get

       End Get
       Set(ByVal Value As String)

       End Set
   End Property

   Public Property Name() As String
       Get

       End Get
       Set(ByVal Value As String)

       End Set
   End Property

End Class

Public Class Player
   Private _Name As String
   Private _Position As String

   Public Property Position() As String
       Get

       End Get
       Set(ByVal Value As String)

       End Set
   End Property
   Public Property Name() As String
       Get

       End Get
       Set(ByVal Value As String)

       End Set
   End Property
End Class

Then I would load the xml into vb and create the collections from there. Once the classes are created, you can then create the new xml files any way you please. You can also output the data to text.

Here is an example to get you started.

THANK YOU!!! I'll definitely look at that when I get to the house tonight....and btw, you might find this really funny....this is for an online football league I'm in, my team name is The Fenris Wolves. :)

A.

:D

Regex is great for parsing text, I use it (well at least I try to use it) for parsing html tables from downloaded html source.

Jeez, Fen...I've tried 10 or 11 different ways to setup what you gave me, but no dice.....I can't even get it started... :( I hope it's not too much to ask for a little more help....(as my son would say) PEASE????? LOL

A.

What do you have so far?

Fen, I got so frustrated, I scrapped everything