RegEx and 'replace'

[peacemaker]

Hi, all

The task is to strip HTML code, make a plain text from it.

There is a code on JavaScript:

str = '**ANY HTML CONTENT HERE**';

str=str.replace(/<\s*br\/*>/gi, "\n");
str=str.replace(/<\s*a.*href="(.*?)".*>(.*?)<\/a>/gi, " $2 (Link->$1) ");
str=str.replace(/<\s*\/*.+?>/ig, "\n");
str=str.replace(/ {2,}/gi, " ");
str=str.replace(/\n+\s*/gi, "\n\n");

How to make such "replace" using RegEx ?

Other variants of code.

 

[Erel]

You can do it with the help of the Reflection library:

Sub Activity_Create(FirstTime As Boolean)
   Log(RegexReplace("abc(d)(e)", "abcde", "$2 $1"))
End Sub

Sub RegexReplace(Pattern As String, Text As String, Replacement As String) As String
   Dim m As Matcher
   m = Regex.Matcher(Pattern, Text)
   Dim r As Reflector
   r.Target = m
   Return r.RunMethod2("replaceAll", Replacement, "java.lang.String")
End Sub

 

[peacemaker]

Thanks, Erel !

 

[NeoTechni]

Thanks, Erel !

Could you post your completed code?

 

[peacemaker]

Sub RegexReplace(Pattern As String, Text As String, Replacement As String) As String
    Dim m As Matcher
    m = Regex.Matcher(Pattern, Text)
    Dim r As Reflector
    r.Target = m
    Return r.RunMethod2("replaceAll", Replacement, "java.lang.String")
End Sub

Sub PlainText (HTML As String) As String
HTML = RegexReplace("/<\s*br\/*>/gi", HTML, CRLF)
HTML = RegexReplace("/<\s*a.*href=" & QUOTE & "(.*?)" & QUOTE & ".*>(.*?)<\/a>/gi", HTML, " $2 (Link->$1) ")
HTML = RegexReplace("/<\s*\/*.+?>/ig", HTML, CRLF)
HTML = RegexReplace("/ {2,}/gi", HTML, " ")
HTML = RegexReplace("/\n+\s*/gi", HTML, CRLF & CRLF)
Return HTML
End Sub

 

[NeoTechni]

thank you.

 

[peacemaker]

https://github.com/mtrimpe/jsHtmlToText/blob/master/jsHtmlToText.js

Maximal cleaning HTML to plain text.
If anyone makes - publish, pls, in this topic.

 

[NeoTechni]

I use:

Sub StripHTML(Text As String) As String
   Dim temp As Int ,temp2 As Int 
   Do While temp>-1 'remove GMAIL quote   <div class=3D"gmail_quote"> to <br>
      temp = Instr(Text, "<div class=3D" & vbQuote & "gmail_quote" & vbQuote & ">", 0)
      If temp =-1 Then temp = Instr(Text, "<div class=" & vbQuote & "gmail_quote" & vbQuote & ">",0)
      If temp >-1 Then'is gmail
         temp2 = Instr(Text, "</blockquote></div>", temp)
         If temp2=-1 Then
            temp=-1
         Else
            Text = Left(Text, temp) & Right(Text, Text.Length - (temp2+19))
         End If
      End If
   Loop
   Text = Text.Replace("<br>", CRLF).Replace("<p>", CRLF)
   temp=0
   Do While temp>-1'remove all HTML
      temp = Instr(Text, "<", 0)
      If temp>-1 Then
         temp2=Instr(Text,">", temp)
         If temp2=-1 Then
            temp=-1
         Else
            Text = Left(Text, temp) & Right(Text, Text.Length - (temp2+1))
         End If
      End If
   Loop   
   Do While Instr(Text, CRLF & CRLF,0)>-1 'remove double new lines
      Text=Text.Replace(CRLF & CRLF, CRLF)
   Loop
   Return Text.Trim'.Replace(STimer.ReplyWarning, "").Trim
End Sub

Sub Left(Text As String, Length As Long)As String 
   If Text.Length>0 AND Length>0 Then
      'If Length>Text.Length Then Length=Text.Length 
      Return Text.SubString2(0, Min(Text.Length,Length))
   End If
   Return ""
End Sub

Sub Right(Text As String, Length As Long) As String
   If Text.Length>0 AND Length>0 Then
      'If Length>Text.Length Then Length=Text.Length 
      Return Text.SubString(Text.Length-Min(Text.Length,Length))
   End If
   Return ""
End Sub
Sub Mid(Text As String, Start As Int, Length As Int) As String 
   If Length>0 AND Start>-1 AND Start< Text.Length Then Return Text.SubString2(Start,Start+Length)
End Sub
Sub Instr(Text As String, TextToFind As String, Start As Int) As Int
   Return Text.IndexOf2(TextToFind,Start)
End Sub

 

[peacemaker]

THANKS !
Very good result ! Work speed is not so important.

I've also added to your code:

a = a.Replace(" ", " ")

to be finally happy

vbQuote = QUOTE

 

[sorex]

I had to do something simular but don't like to add libraries when it's not really needed.

So I ended with this simple sub routine to get rid of ALL the html tags that are in the cdata xml fields.

log (striptags(htmldata))

Sub striptags(t As String)
Dim subs() As String
Dim x As Int 
subs=Regex.Split(">",t)      
t=""
For x=0 To subs.Length -1
   If subs(x).IndexOf("<")>-1 Then
      t=t & subs(x).SubString2(0,subs(x).IndexOf("<"))
   Else 
      t=t & subs(x)
   End If
Next
Return t
End Sub