Regex help needed please

[psycik]

Hi I have a string that I'm trying to extract a value from. The html I'm stripping from is the following:

Code:

You have used <strong> 13.02 GB</strong>

And here is the regex I've got that does work....

Code:

(You have used <strong> )(?'extract'[0-9]+.[0-9]+[ ]?[GB|MB]+)(</strong>)

The value shows up as group 2. The problem with this is I want the regex in a config file, and at the moment, when i load the config file, it complains about the '<' inside the string.

What I'd like to do is look for "You have used" ignore the '<strong>' and extract the value.

Any regex wizards out there know how to do it??

[psycik]

Oh, I think I finally got it.

Code:

(You have used )*(?'extract'[0-9]+.[0-9]+[ ]?[GB|MB]+)

[JonnyCam]

Are you using this for your telstra download cap? If so, I'd be interested in how you do this, so I can add it to my VFD.

Cheers

[psycik]

yeah I have a program i run on a machine with a website to get the usage. It dumps xml files down for month and a general one with your current usage..

There's also that other program, mentioned on geekzone that downloads the usage as well. http://tuc.swaziboy.com/

[McBainUK]

Slightly off topic but Expresso (free) a good tool for designing/testing regular expressions. Came in handy for the Cinema Listings scraping.

[psycik]

Cool, will have a look at that....

[stefan]

Slightly off topic but Expresso (free) a good tool for designing/testing regular expressions. Came in handy for the Cinema Listings scraping.

Good tip. I use The Regex Coach, which works great, too. I'll have to look at Expresso.

[Ted the Penguin]

Slightly off topic but Expresso (free) a good tool for designing/testing regular expressions. Came in handy for the Cinema Listings scraping.

glad to see that you started using regex to do your scraping... did it make it easier for you?

[psycik]

glad to see that you started using regex to do your scraping... did it make it easier for you?

I think the biggest advantage to using regex isn't to make it easier, but you can externalise a regex string whereas the old method of:
int startpos = string.indexof("characters");
string bitIwant = string.substring(startpos);

Was hard coded into the program.... So with regex you can store the string in a config file, and for an update to find something new, if can be don't without a recompile...

[JonnyCam]

yeah I have a program i run on a machine with a website to get the usage. It dumps xml files down for month and a general one with your current usage..

There's also that other program, mentioned on geekzone that downloads the usage as well. http://tuc.swaziboy.com/

Thanks for that. Does this export the data at all, so I can use it for a VFD display, or should I use regex?

Thanks