String Regular Expression Help Syntax

[crislivinitup]

Hi Programmers,

I have worked with SRE before and I know it's a really powerful tool to get extract exactly what you want from text. However it's a little tricky to use sometimes with a lot of syntax to memorize. I'm having a problem and I know it should work, but I just can't get it to work.

Here is my text:

:ALONEI~2
cd ALONEI~2
AITD2CRK.COM
goto end

:ALONEI~3
cd ALONEI~3
AITD3.EXE
goto end

:ARKANO~1
cd ARKANO~1
start.bat
goto end

:Ascend
cd Ascend
ASCEND.EXE
goto end

What I would like to do is get the text between a label like "Alonel~3" and the line "goto end" below it.

Here is what I have to work with:

1. I will always know the name of the label

2. I will NOT know how many lines is between the label and the line "goto end"

The SRE I have built so far is this, "(?:\:ARKANO~1)(?:\s*)(.*)(?:\s*)(.*)" ;note, the \s must also have a * because I've found without it, it won't work. Maybe the file uses two different linefeeds in one.

Which will give me an array of

0 => cd ARKANO~1

1 => start.bat

Now that's good, but the thing is I don't know how many lines will be inbetween, so I'd like to make an unlimited repeating set Something like this, but one that has the proper syntax and works.

Here are a few tries and fails I've made:

"(?:\:ARKANO~1)[?:\s.]*(?:goto)" ; also note I don't want to capture the line feeds

"(?:\:ARKANO~1)((?:\s)|(.))*(?:goto)"

"(?:\:ARKANO~1)((?:\s*)|(.*))(?:goto)"

"(?:\:ARKANO~1)((?:\s)|(.)){1,}(?:goto)"

Basically I need to know how to put special characters into a set and make it repeating. I want to not capture the \s line feeds, but capture anything else and continue until I hit the "goto" text. I've been at this for a few hours so any help is appreciated.

[Beege]

Have you looked at the code used in _StringBetween()? It might be helpful. Just pasting that sample text you posted into a file, I tested it and they all came out ok.

#include <string.au3>
$read = FileRead('text.txt')
$sBetween = _StringBetween($read, ':ARKANO~1', 'goto end')
if IsArray($sBetween) Then MsgBox(0, '', $sBetween[0])

Edited January 29, 2012 by Beege

[crislivinitup]

Hi Beege,

I have seen that actually, it one of the alternatives I might end up using. However, I really would like to know how to use SRE properly because I often use it and there are other problems I will come across that stringbetween won't beable to solve. I know it's more complicated, and though string between works, I would like to know how to do it the SRE way.

It's not the first time I've come across this particular problem actually. In a different scenario I wanted to beable to use special characters in a set.

[crislivinitup]

Here is the problem written in code. Incase anybody else wants to try. Though, I like to use the StringRegExpGUI included in the example files of Autoit.

#include <Array.au3>

$searchString = "SRE Syntax Here"

$text = "" & _
  @CRLF & _
  ":ARKANO~1" & @CRLF & _
  "cd ARKANO~1" & @CRLF & _
  "start.bat" & @CRLF & _
  "goto end" & @CRLF & _
  @CRLF & _
  @CRLF & _
  ":Ascend" & @CRLF & _
  "cd Ascend" & @CRLF & _
  "ASCEND.EXE" & @CRLF & _
  "goto end" & @CRLF & _
  @CRLF & _
  @CRLF & _
  ":BEETLE~1" & @CRLF & _
  "cd BEETLE~1" & @CRLF & _
  "BJ.EXE" & @CRLF & _
  "goto end"
$asResult = StringRegExp($text, $searchString, 2)
If @error == 0 Then
_ArrayDisplay($asResult)
EndIf

[Beege]

Well _Stringbetween() uses SRE. Thats why I said it might be helpful to look at the code. The pattern it generated was:

(?s)(?i):ARKANO~1(.*?)goto end

[Beege]

The patten I posted above seems to work fine unless I'm missing something?

#include <Array.au3>
$searchString = "(?s)(?i):ARKANO~1(.*?)goto end"

$text = "" & _
  @CRLF & _
  ":ARKANO~1" & @CRLF & _
  "cd ARKANO~1" & @CRLF & _
  "start.bat" & @CRLF & _
  "goto end" & @CRLF & _
  @CRLF & _
  @CRLF & _
  ":Ascend" & @CRLF & _
  "cd Ascend" & @CRLF & _
  "ASCEND.EXE" & @CRLF & _
  "goto end" & @CRLF & _
  @CRLF & _
  @CRLF & _
  ":BEETLE~1" & @CRLF & _
  "cd BEETLE~1" & @CRLF & _
  "BJ.EXE" & @CRLF & _
  "goto end"


$asResult = StringRegExp($text, $searchString, 3)
If not @error Then MsgBox(0,'',$asResult[0])

edit: Change the SRE option back to 2 if you want to include the original search items

Edited January 29, 2012 by Beege

[crislivinitup]

Slow internet connection, I didn't see your post .

Yes you're right! Absolutely. A quick question though, is there a way to include special characters in a set "[...]" for example s, H, etc. For my future reference.

[Beege]

Not postive because I'm definaitly not a SRE guru but I think the or operator might work. ex: s|H

edit: Just to clarify I did not mean use that in a set. Thats an alternative. The doc specifically says special characters do not retain their special meanings inside a set..

Edited January 29, 2012 by Beege

[crislivinitup]

Ok, well thanks a lot Beege. I appreciate the help. I'm working on a Front end for making Batch Menus for DosBox... and now I can continue.

[Beege]

Happy to help

[jchd]

For anyone interested, check this very good tutorial about REs.

[GEOSoft]

Good link. I added it to the toolkit.