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Hi All,
I have a script that I convert xml tags to html. like "<" I convert to
"&lt;" and so on.
after the conversion I need to capture the information inside the tag.
let take for example the string "&lt;abcd&gt;: which is equivalent to
"<abcd>".
I tried to capture the "abcd" which can be different from tag to tag
in the following way:

/\&lt\;([^\&\gt\;]*)/

like match "&lt;" and then match anything that is not "&gt;".
the thing is that it doesn't work on all tags for some reason and I
was wondering on a principal base if doing a [^somestring] suppose to
work ?

Thanks.

ikeon <> writes:

> like match "&lt;" and then match anything that is not "&gt;".
> the thing is that it doesn't work on all tags for some reason and I
> was wondering on a principal base if doing a [^somestring] suppose to
> work ?

No, using [^string] wont work as you're expecting. Just like
[string] doesn't match 'string' but only one of the letters s, t, r,
i, n, or g [^stirng] just matches one letter which isn't in 'string'.

What you need is a negative look-ahead (?!string). Read 'perldoc
perlre' for the explanation of it.

//Makholm

ikeon wrote:
>
> I have a script that I convert xml tags to html. like "<" I convert to
> "&lt;" and so on.
> after the conversion I need to capture the information inside the tag.
> let take for example the string "&lt;abcd&gt;: which is equivalent to
> "<abcd>".
> I tried to capture the "abcd" which can be different from tag to tag
> in the following way:
>
> /\&lt\;([^\&\gt\;]*)/

You probably want something like:

/&lt;(.*?)&gt;/



John
--
Perl isn't a toolbox, but a small machine shop where you
can special-order certain sorts of tools at low cost and
in short order. -- Larry Wall

On Nov 27, 12:13*pm, "John W. Krahn" <some...@example.com> wrote:
> ikeon wrote:
>
> > I have a script that I convert xml tags to html. like "<" I convert to
> > "&lt;" and so on.
> > after the conversion I need to capture the information inside the tag.
> > let take for example the string "&lt;abcd&gt;: which is equivalent to
> > "<abcd>".
> > I tried to capture the "abcd" which can be different from tag to tag
> > in the following way:
>
> > /\&lt\;([^\&\gt\;]*)/
>
> You probably want something like:
>
> /&lt;(.*?)&gt;/
>
> John
> --
> Perl isn't a toolbox, but a small machine shop where you
> can special-order certain sorts of tools at low cost and
> in short order. * * * * * * * * * * * * * *--Larry Wall

The (?!string) didn't work for some reason but I have learned a lot
from "perldoc perlre"
The solution was /&lt;(.*?)&gt;/ which is the simple one. I tried it
with only (.*) but it was "greedy".

Thanks John and Peter for your quick respone.

On Thu, 27 Nov 2008 00:40:00 -0800 (PST), ikeon <> wrote:

>Hi All,
>I have a script that I convert xml tags to html. like "<" I convert to
>"&lt;" and so on.
>after the conversion I need to capture the information inside the tag.
>let take for example the string "&lt;abcd&gt;: which is equivalent to
>"<abcd>".
>I tried to capture the "abcd" which can be different from tag to tag
>in the following way:
>
>/\&lt\;([^\&\gt\;]*)/
>
>like match "&lt;" and then match anything that is not "&gt;".
>the thing is that it doesn't work on all tags for some reason and I
>was wondering on a principal base if doing a [^somestring] suppose to
>work ?
>
>Thanks.

I'm still confused with your terminology 'xml tags to html'.
So be it.

How do you go from "<abcd>" to "&lt;abcd&gt;" without capturing
'abcd' ?


sln