From: Robert Dober <robert.dober@...>
Date: 2007-02-13T22:48:44+09:00
Subject: Re: What's the best way of parsing this string?

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On 2/12/07, Jason Roelofs <jameskilton@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Well, maybe you can assume valid XML and parse the page with REXML. If
> it's
> not valid XML, well you can regex through for (off-the-cuff, probably
> wrong)
> /<param.*value="(.*)"/ and use the result. Someone more knowledgable in
> Regexps can help you out if it comes to this.


Well it might be necessary to  use a non greedy match

/<param.*value="(.*?)"/

in order not to consume a potentially following  key="..." pair.

A more explicit and thus more readable way might be to write it like this -
avoiding any potential backtracking issues if the regexp evolves later too.

/<param.*value="([^"]*)"/

This all is just for the quick hack though, definitely go with REXML or
hpricot if they can do the job for you.

HTH
Roberts

Jason
> <snip>
>

-- 
We have not succeeded in answering all of our questions.
In fact, in some ways, we are more confused than ever.
But we feel we are confused on a higher level and about more important
things.
-Anonymous

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