Java - Regex for the given string

Question

I have the following html code segment:

        <br>
        Date: 2010-06-20,  1:37AM PDT<br>
        <br>
        Daddy: <a href="...">www.google.com</a>
        <br>

I want to extract

Date: 2010-06-20, 1:37AM PDT

and

Daddy: <a href="...">www.google.com</a>

with the help of java regex.

So what regex I should use?

Regex is the wrong tool for the job. However, you need to provide a bit more context before we can give a more suitable answer. Where does this HTML come from? How are you loading it? How does the complete HTML look like? Do you have control over it? — BalusC
– BalusC, Commented Jun 20, 2010 at 13:02
@BalusC - A .split() with regex may be pretty straightforward here though, just whitespace and <br>, just a thought. — Nick Craver
– Nick Craver, Commented Jun 20, 2010 at 13:03
@Nick: not if there's more into the actual HTML than only this "segment". — BalusC
– BalusC, Commented Jun 20, 2010 at 13:05
@BalusC - Agreed, hopefully that's not the case and he has this exact string already. — Nick Craver
– Nick Craver, Commented Jun 20, 2010 at 13:12

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:13:26Z

1

This should give you a nice starting point:

    String text = 
    "        <br>\n" +
    "        Date: 2010-06-20,  1:37AM PDT<br>   \n" +
    "   <br>    \n" +
    "Daddy: <a href=\"...\">www.google.com</a>   \n" +
    "<br>";

    String[] parts = text.split("(?:\\s*<br>\\s*)+");
    for (String part : parts) {
        System.out.println("[" + part + "]");
    }

This prints (as seen on ideone.com):

[]
[Date: 2010-06-20,  1:37AM PDT]
[Daddy: <a href="...">www.google.com</a>]

This uses String[] String.split(String regex). The regex pattern is "one or more of <br>, with preceding or trailing whitespaces.

Guava alternative

You can also use Splitter from Guava. It's actually a lot more readable, and can omitEmptyStrings().

    Splitter splitter = Splitter.on("<br>").trimResults().omitEmptyStrings();
    for (String part : splitter.split(text)) {
        System.out.println("[" + part + "]");
    }

This prints:

[Date: 2010-06-20,  1:37AM PDT]
[Daddy: <a href="...">www.google.com</a>]

3 Comments

polygenelubricants Over a year ago

Also maybe you want something like this? rubular.com/r/wy3b1ABsaC Leave a comment and I'll elaborate on any of these approaches.

polygenelubricants Over a year ago

Also check this one out: rubular.com/r/mftjWgKWzP Tell me which one you fancy.

user942821 Over a year ago

I agree. For this kind of html, you shouldn't use regex, instead, you have the key which is tag "br".

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