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dotnet framework : Regex Replace Help
I have a files which contains & & "e; I want to replace & with & , but not & or "e; Will someone please help with the Regular Expression. TIA Barry
Hi Barry,
Actually I wanted to play around with this for you but just haven't gotten around to it. (And, btw, I don't recall any previous posts from you on this subject.) Part of my response to you, the part I can provide without actually playing with a regex, is the following. Regular Expressions are extremely useful. If you do any programming the effort you put into learning regular expressions will be worth it. Several of us here use Expresso (from UltraPico) and recommend it. I just became aware of something similar called Regular Expression Workbench available from MSDN. I've installed it but have not yet played with it. I'll try to play with it later today but no promises. Bob [quoted text, click to view] "barry" <someone@somewhere.com> wrote in message news:eIDvCEsqIHA.2520@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl... > strange, no one has replied > > looks like i have crossed the limit of asking question on the same topic. > I the some limit maybe (10 or 15 per topic) > > > "barry" <someone@somewhere.com> wrote in message > news:Ot5OGUgqIHA.4912@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl... >> Hi >> >> I have a files which contains >> & >> & >> "e; >> >> I want to replace & with & , but not & or "e; >> >> Will someone please help with the Regular Expression. >> >> TIA >> Barry >> >> >> > >
strange, no one has replied
looks like i have crossed the limit of asking question on the same topic. I the some limit maybe (10 or 15 per topic) [quoted text, click to view] "barry" <someone@somewhere.com> wrote in message news:Ot5OGUgqIHA.4912@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl... > Hi > > I have a files which contains > & > & > "e; > > I want to replace & with & , but not & or "e; > > Will someone please help with the Regular Expression. > > TIA > Barry > > >
Thanks for your reply Imagine the following string string str = "The Quick Black&Fox & Jumped Over "e; The & Lazy Dog"; should be string str = "The Quick Black&Fox & Jumped Over "e; The & Lazy Dog"; This is a problem with a larger .xml file in which xx&xx is creating a problems in IE In fact in have just spent over 50 minutes and managed to get some results like this str = Regex.Replace(str, @"\b\s*(?=&[^&|"e;| & ])\b", "&", RegexOptions.None); And last but not the least i collect all answers posted to my Regex queries for later use. [quoted text, click to view] "eBob.com" <fakename@totallybogus.com> wrote in message news:e20WY2sqIHA.4476@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl... > Hi Barry, > > Actually I wanted to play around with this for you but just haven't gotten > around to it. (And, btw, I don't recall any previous posts from you on > this subject.) > > Part of my response to you, the part I can provide without actually > playing with a regex, is the following. Regular Expressions are extremely > useful. If you do any programming the effort you put into learning regular > expressions will be worth it. Several of us here use Expresso (from > UltraPico) and recommend it. I just became aware of something similar > called Regular Expression Workbench available from MSDN. I've installed > it but have not yet played with it. > > I'll try to play with it later today but no promises. > > Bob > > "barry" <someone@somewhere.com> wrote in message > news:eIDvCEsqIHA.2520@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl... >> strange, no one has replied >> >> looks like i have crossed the limit of asking question on the same topic. >> I the some limit maybe (10 or 15 per topic) >> >> >> "barry" <someone@somewhere.com> wrote in message >> news:Ot5OGUgqIHA.4912@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl... >>> Hi >>> >>> I have a files which contains >>> & >>> & >>> "e; >>> >>> I want to replace & with & , but not & or "e; >>> >>> Will someone please help with the Regular Expression. >>> >>> TIA >>> Barry >>> >>> >>> >> >> > >
Well ... I did know before I looked at this that I was far from an expert in
regular expressions. But I know that even better now! But I think that I did eventually find a solution. I began by ignoring the replace aspect of the problem and tried to just find a regular expression that would find the right ampersands. At first I did not see how to find an "&" NOT followed by a specific STRING. But after some research in the great Balena book I learned that I could use what is called a "zero-width negative look-ahead assertion". The syntax for one of those is "(?!subexpr)". So using this expression (?<desiredamp>&(?!amp;)) I was able to find ampersands except for those followed by "amp;". Great! I thought I was on my way and leapt, without sufficient thought, to (?<desiredamp>&((?!amp;)|(?!quote;))) but that catches all ampersands. It catches & because that's an & not followed by "quote;". And catches "e; because that's an & not followed by "amp;". After more thought I came up with (?<desiredamp>&(?!(amp;)|(quote;))) which I think finds the ampersands which you want to find. Another plug for Expresso, it was absolutely invaluable in researching this! The expression above does find the & in "The & Lazy Dog". But if you don't want that one I am sure you can see how to alter the expression to eliminate it. I also did not worry about the replace aspect of the problem, I'm sure you don't need help with that. Good Luck, Bob [quoted text, click to view] "barry" <someone@somewhere.com> wrote in message news:%23RjzdDtqIHA.3568@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl... > > Thanks for your reply > > Imagine the following string > string str = "The Quick Black&Fox & Jumped Over "e; The & Lazy > Dog"; > > should be > > string str = "The Quick Black&Fox & Jumped Over "e; The & Lazy > Dog"; > > This is a problem with a larger .xml file in which xx&xx is creating a > problems in IE > > In fact in have just spent over 50 minutes and managed to get some results > like this > > str = Regex.Replace(str, @"\b\s*(?=&[^&|"e;| & ])\b", "&", > RegexOptions.None); > > And last but not the least i collect all answers posted to my Regex > queries for later use. > > > > > > > > > "eBob.com" <fakename@totallybogus.com> wrote in message > news:e20WY2sqIHA.4476@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl... >> Hi Barry, >> >> Actually I wanted to play around with this for you but just haven't >> gotten around to it. (And, btw, I don't recall any previous posts from >> you on this subject.) >> >> Part of my response to you, the part I can provide without actually >> playing with a regex, is the following. Regular Expressions are >> extremely useful. If you do any programming the effort you put into >> learning regular expressions will be worth it. Several of us here use >> Expresso (from UltraPico) and recommend it. I just became aware of >> something similar called Regular Expression Workbench available from >> MSDN. I've installed it but have not yet played with it. >> >> I'll try to play with it later today but no promises. >> >> Bob >> >> "barry" <someone@somewhere.com> wrote in message >> news:eIDvCEsqIHA.2520@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl... >>> strange, no one has replied >>> >>> looks like i have crossed the limit of asking question on the same >>> topic. I the some limit maybe (10 or 15 per topic) >>> >>> >>> "barry" <someone@somewhere.com> wrote in message >>> news:Ot5OGUgqIHA.4912@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl... >>>> Hi >>>> >>>> I have a files which contains >>>> & >>>> & >>>> "e; >>>> >>>> I want to replace & with & , but not & or "e; >>>> >>>> Will someone please help with the Regular Expression. >>>> >>>> TIA >>>> Barry >>>> >>>> >>>> >>> >>> >> >> > >
[quoted text, click to view]
"barry" <someone@somewhere.com> wrote in message news:%23RjzdDtqIHA.3568@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl... > > Thanks for your reply > > Imagine the following string > string str = "The Quick Black&Fox & Jumped Over "e; The & Lazy > Dog"; > > should be > > string str = "The Quick Black&Fox & Jumped Over "e; The & Lazy > Dog"; > > This is a problem with a larger .xml file in which xx&xx is creating a > problems in IE > > In fact in have just spent over 50 minutes and managed to get some results > like this > > str = Regex.Replace(str, @"\b\s*(?=&[^&|"e;| & ])\b", "&", > RegexOptions.None); > > And last but not the least i collect all answers posted to my Regex > queries for later use. > Is this a case of correcting badly encoded data? Is the source data expected to be correctly encoded html/xml? It seems encoding certain "&"s while igonoring others is hacking around a problem instead of sorting out why the source data is incorrect. Also, in your example you encode one "&" at "Black&Fox" while ignoring another at "The & Lazy". So what are the rules? -- Tigger http://www.mccreath.org.uk
Hello Barry,
Let's try to wriete out the pattern you're looking for. You're specifically looking for a pattern that consists of an &, not followed by any alphanumeric characters and a ;. Now if you write it out like that, it becomes quite simple: &(?![a-z0-9]+;) That's it... Now, replace those with & and you're done. Jesse [quoted text, click to view] > Thanks for your reply --> > Imagine the following string > string str = "The Quick Black&Fox & Jumped Over "e; The & Lazy > Dog"; > should be > > string str = "The Quick Black&Fox & Jumped Over "e; The & > Lazy Dog"; > > This is a problem with a larger .xml file in which xx&xx is creating > a problems in IE > > In fact in have just spent over 50 minutes and managed to get some > results like this > > str = Regex.Replace(str, @"\b\s*(?=&[^&|"e;| & ])\b", "&", > RegexOptions.None); > > And last but not the least i collect all answers posted to my Regex > queries for later use. > > "eBob.com" <fakename@totallybogus.com> wrote in message > news:e20WY2sqIHA.4476@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl... > >> Hi Barry, >> >> Actually I wanted to play around with this for you but just haven't >> gotten around to it. (And, btw, I don't recall any previous posts >> from you on this subject.) >> >> Part of my response to you, the part I can provide without actually >> playing with a regex, is the following. Regular Expressions are >> extremely useful. If you do any programming the effort you put into >> learning regular expressions will be worth it. Several of us here >> use Expresso (from UltraPico) and recommend it. I just became aware >> of something similar called Regular Expression Workbench available >> from MSDN. I've installed it but have not yet played with it. >> >> I'll try to play with it later today but no promises. >> >> Bob >> >> "barry" <someone@somewhere.com> wrote in message >> news:eIDvCEsqIHA.2520@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl... >> >>> strange, no one has replied >>> >>> looks like i have crossed the limit of asking question on the same >>> topic. I the some limit maybe (10 or 15 per topic) >>> >>> "barry" <someone@somewhere.com> wrote in message >>> news:Ot5OGUgqIHA.4912@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl... >>> >>>> Hi >>>> >>>> I have a files which contains >>>> & >>>> & >>>> "e; >>>> I want to replace & with & , but not & or "e; >>>> >>>> Will someone please help with the Regular Expression. >>>> >>>> TIA >>>> Barry Jesse Houwing jesse.houwing at sogeti.n
Hello Barry,
[quoted text, click to view] > Thanks Jesse > > It does the replace in the entire xml file. > You're welcome :) Jesse [quoted text, click to view] > Barry --> > "barry" <someone@somewhere.com> wrote in message > news:%23teNvwDrIHA.3940@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl... > >> Hello Jesse >> >> Will this work on a entire XML file (it has over 20,000 lines) and >> there are many lines with such problems. The acutal job is long over, >> i am only trying to understand regex in such cases. >> >> Barry >> >> "Jesse Houwing" <jesse.houwing@newsgroup.nospam> wrote in message >> news:21effc90535268ca7a5afde26e27@news.microsoft.com... >> >>> Hello Barry, >>> >>> Let's try to wriete out the pattern you're looking for. >>> >>> You're specifically looking for a pattern that consists of an &, not >>> followed by any alphanumeric characters and a ;. Now if you write it >>> out like that, it becomes quite simple: >>> >>> &(?![a-z0-9]+;) >>> >>> That's it... Now, replace those with & and you're done. >>> >>> Jesse >>> >>>> Thanks for your reply >>>> >>>> Imagine the following string >>>> string str = "The Quick Black&Fox & Jumped Over "e; The & >>>> Lazy >>>> Dog"; >>>> should be >>>> string str = "The Quick Black&Fox & Jumped Over "e; The >>>> & Lazy Dog"; >>>> >>>> This is a problem with a larger .xml file in which xx&xx is >>>> creating a problems in IE >>>> >>>> In fact in have just spent over 50 minutes and managed to get some >>>> results like this >>>> >>>> str = Regex.Replace(str, @"\b\s*(?=&[^&|"e;| & ])\b", >>>> "&", RegexOptions.None); >>>> >>>> And last but not the least i collect all answers posted to my Regex >>>> queries for later use. >>>> >>>> "eBob.com" <fakename@totallybogus.com> wrote in message >>>> news:e20WY2sqIHA.4476@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl... >>>> >>>>> Hi Barry, >>>>> >>>>> Actually I wanted to play around with this for you but just >>>>> haven't gotten around to it. (And, btw, I don't recall any >>>>> previous posts from you on this subject.) >>>>> >>>>> Part of my response to you, the part I can provide without >>>>> actually playing with a regex, is the following. Regular >>>>> Expressions are extremely useful. If you do any programming the >>>>> effort you put into learning regular expressions will be worth it. >>>>> Several of us here use Expresso (from UltraPico) and recommend it. >>>>> I just became aware of something similar called Regular Expression >>>>> Workbench available from MSDN. I've installed it but have not yet >>>>> played with it. >>>>> >>>>> I'll try to play with it later today but no promises. >>>>> >>>>> Bob >>>>> >>>>> "barry" <someone@somewhere.com> wrote in message >>>>> news:eIDvCEsqIHA.2520@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl... >>>>>> strange, no one has replied >>>>>> >>>>>> looks like i have crossed the limit of asking question on the >>>>>> same topic. I the some limit maybe (10 or 15 per topic) >>>>>> >>>>>> "barry" <someone@somewhere.com> wrote in message >>>>>> news:Ot5OGUgqIHA.4912@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl... >>>>>>> Hi >>>>>>> >>>>>>> I have a files which contains >>>>>>> & >>>>>>> & >>>>>>> "e; >>>>>>> I want to replace & with & , but not & or "e; >>>>>>> Will someone please help with the Regular Expression. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> TIA >>>>>>> Barry >>> -- >>> Jesse Houwing >>> jesse.houwing at sogeti.nl Jesse Houwing jesse.houwing at sogeti.nl
well i work on freelancer sites and one buyer had posted 3 xml files which hr/she could not read in IE, i tried them myself it would fail on some lines with IE giving the following error message A semi colon character was expected. Error processing resource 'file:///C:/3Xmls/canales.es_9159529468.xml'. Line 16590, P... once the & was replacedwith & it would move further and show a error on another line. The buyer wanted the errors corrected in the entire files, it was possible to do a find/replace (carefully) in a text editor, i have no intention of hacking and do not have the time to do so. If you want i can send you one of those files (i do not have the permission to do so, but that does not matter). following is one such problem node, link is the problem node <video> <idvideo>Publicidad</idvideo> <nombre>Publicidad</nombre> <descripcion>Publicidad</descripcion> [quoted text, click to view] <url>http://www.xxxxxxxxx.tv/xxx/redir.php?pf=zoneid__18;n__ae371c90;cb__786592291</url> <link>http://www.xxxxxxxxx.tv/ads/redir.php?clk=1&pf=zoneid__18;n__ae371c90;cb__786592291</link> <category>preroll</category> <thumbnail></thumbnail></video>"Tigger" <mccreath@bigfoot.com> wrote in messagenews:DfqdnbuoUaE0eYTVnZ2dnUVZ_oGjnZ2d@adnap.net.au...> "barry" <someone@somewhere.com> wrote in messagenews:%23RjzdDtqIHA.3568@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...>>>> Thanks for your reply>>>> Imagine the following string>> string str = "The Quick Black&Fox & Jumped Over "e; The & LazyDog";>>>> should be>>>> string str = "The Quick Black&Fox & Jumped Over "e; The &Lazy Dog";>>>> This is a problem with a larger .xml file in which xx&xx is creating aproblems in IE>>>> In fact in have just spent over 50 minutes and managed to get someresults like this>>>> str = Regex.Replace(str, @"\b\s*(?=&[^&|"e;| & ])\b", "&",RegexOptions.None);>>>> And last but not the least i collect all answers posted to my Regexqueries for later use.>>>> Is this a case of correcting badly encoded data? Is the source dataexpected to be correctly encoded html/xml?>> It seems encoding certain "&"s while igonoring others is hacking around aproblem instead of sorting out why the source data is incorrect.>> Also, in your example you encode one "&" at "Black&Fox" while ignoringanother at "The & Lazy". So what are the rules?>> --> Tigger> http://www.mccreath.org.uk>
Hello Jesse
Will this work on a entire XML file (it has over 20,000 lines) and there are many lines with such problems. The acutal job is long over, i am only trying to understand regex in such cases. Barry [quoted text, click to view] "Jesse Houwing" <jesse.houwing@newsgroup.nospam> wrote in message news:21effc90535268ca7a5afde26e27@news.microsoft.com... > Hello Barry, > > Let's try to wriete out the pattern you're looking for. > > You're specifically looking for a pattern that consists of an &, not > followed by any alphanumeric characters and a ;. Now if you write it out > like that, it becomes quite simple: > > &(?![a-z0-9]+;) > > That's it... Now, replace those with & and you're done. > > Jesse > > >> Thanks for your reply >> >> Imagine the following string >> string str = "The Quick Black&Fox & Jumped Over "e; The & Lazy >> Dog"; >> should be >> >> string str = "The Quick Black&Fox & Jumped Over "e; The & >> Lazy Dog"; >> >> This is a problem with a larger .xml file in which xx&xx is creating >> a problems in IE >> >> In fact in have just spent over 50 minutes and managed to get some >> results like this >> >> str = Regex.Replace(str, @"\b\s*(?=&[^&|"e;| & ])\b", "&", >> RegexOptions.None); >> >> And last but not the least i collect all answers posted to my Regex >> queries for later use. >> >> "eBob.com" <fakename@totallybogus.com> wrote in message >> news:e20WY2sqIHA.4476@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl... >> >>> Hi Barry, >>> >>> Actually I wanted to play around with this for you but just haven't >>> gotten around to it. (And, btw, I don't recall any previous posts >>> from you on this subject.) >>> >>> Part of my response to you, the part I can provide without actually >>> playing with a regex, is the following. Regular Expressions are >>> extremely useful. If you do any programming the effort you put into >>> learning regular expressions will be worth it. Several of us here >>> use Expresso (from UltraPico) and recommend it. I just became aware >>> of something similar called Regular Expression Workbench available >>> from MSDN. I've installed it but have not yet played with it. >>> >>> I'll try to play with it later today but no promises. >>> >>> Bob >>> >>> "barry" <someone@somewhere.com> wrote in message >>> news:eIDvCEsqIHA.2520@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl... >>> >>>> strange, no one has replied >>>> >>>> looks like i have crossed the limit of asking question on the same >>>> topic. I the some limit maybe (10 or 15 per topic) >>>> >>>> "barry" <someone@somewhere.com> wrote in message >>>> news:Ot5OGUgqIHA.4912@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl... >>>> >>>>> Hi >>>>> >>>>> I have a files which contains >>>>> & >>>>> & >>>>> "e; >>>>> I want to replace & with & , but not & or "e; >>>>> >>>>> Will someone please help with the Regular Expression. >>>>> >>>>> TIA >>>>> Barry > -- > Jesse Houwing > jesse.houwing at sogeti.nl > >
Thanks Jesse
It does the replace in the entire xml file. Barry [quoted text, click to view] "barry" <someone@somewhere.com> wrote in message news:%23teNvwDrIHA.3940@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl... > Hello Jesse > > Will this work on a entire XML file (it has over 20,000 lines) and there > are many lines with such problems. The acutal job is long over, i am only > trying to understand regex in such cases. > > Barry > > > "Jesse Houwing" <jesse.houwing@newsgroup.nospam> wrote in message > news:21effc90535268ca7a5afde26e27@news.microsoft.com... >> Hello Barry, >> >> Let's try to wriete out the pattern you're looking for. >> >> You're specifically looking for a pattern that consists of an &, not >> followed by any alphanumeric characters and a ;. Now if you write it out >> like that, it becomes quite simple: >> >> &(?![a-z0-9]+;) >> >> That's it... Now, replace those with & and you're done. >> >> Jesse >> >> >>> Thanks for your reply >>> >>> Imagine the following string >>> string str = "The Quick Black&Fox & Jumped Over "e; The & Lazy >>> Dog"; >>> should be >>> >>> string str = "The Quick Black&Fox & Jumped Over "e; The & >>> Lazy Dog"; >>> >>> This is a problem with a larger .xml file in which xx&xx is creating >>> a problems in IE >>> >>> In fact in have just spent over 50 minutes and managed to get some >>> results like this >>> >>> str = Regex.Replace(str, @"\b\s*(?=&[^&|"e;| & ])\b", "&", >>> RegexOptions.None); >>> >>> And last but not the least i collect all answers posted to my Regex >>> queries for later use. >>> >>> "eBob.com" <fakename@totallybogus.com> wrote in message >>> news:e20WY2sqIHA.4476@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl... >>> >>>> Hi Barry, >>>> >>>> Actually I wanted to play around with this for you but just haven't >>>> gotten around to it. (And, btw, I don't recall any previous posts >>>> from you on this subject.) >>>> >>>> Part of my response to you, the part I can provide without actually >>>> playing with a regex, is the following. Regular Expressions are >>>> extremely useful. If you do any programming the effort you put into >>>> learning regular expressions will be worth it. Several of us here >>>> use Expresso (from UltraPico) and recommend it. I just became aware >>>> of something similar called Regular Expression Workbench available >>>> from MSDN. I've installed it but have not yet played with it. >>>> >>>> I'll try to play with it later today but no promises. >>>> >>>> Bob >>>> >>>> "barry" <someone@somewhere.com> wrote in message >>>> news:eIDvCEsqIHA.2520@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl... >>>> >>>>> strange, no one has replied >>>>> >>>>> looks like i have crossed the limit of asking question on the same >>>>> topic. I the some limit maybe (10 or 15 per topic) >>>>> >>>>> "barry" <someone@somewhere.com> wrote in message >>>>> news:Ot5OGUgqIHA.4912@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl... >>>>> >>>>>> Hi >>>>>> >>>>>> I have a files which contains >>>>>> & >>>>>> & >>>>>> "e; >>>>>> I want to replace & with & , but not & or "e; >>>>>> >>>>>> Will someone please help with the Regular Expression. >>>>>> >>>>>> TIA >>>>>> Barry >> -- >> Jesse Houwing >> jesse.houwing at sogeti.nl >> >> > >
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