JavaScript Regular expression text parsing

Question

I have a string like the following

~~<b>A<i>C</i></b>~~/~~<u>D</u><b>B</b>~~has done this.

I am trying to get the text inside tag. I am trying

<b>(.+)</b>

But I am getting AC~~/~~DB, but I need AC as first match and B as the second match

Can anyone please help?

Can you post the regular expression that you've already tried?... — War10ck
– War10ck, Commented Apr 24, 2014 at 15:01
Thou shall not try to parse html with regular expressions. Seriously, in most cases you will end up with a pile of unmaintainable and error-prone code - just imagine Nested sections of interest (eG. ...............). Make sure that you have a very compelling reason to choose this path. — collapsar
– collapsar, Commented Apr 24, 2014 at 15:09
The following questions in the Stack Overflow Regular Expressions FAQ may be of interest: In-depth discussion on the differences between greedy versus non-greedy (listed under "Quantifiers"), and Don't use regex to parse HTML (under "General Information"). Please consider bookmarking the FAQ for future reference. — aliteralmind
– aliteralmind, Commented Apr 24, 2014 at 15:12
This parsing will be under HTML5 canvas where I have to parse and create canvas text. I am doing this because I can not use html text inside canvas — user3306669
– user3306669, Commented Apr 24, 2014 at 15:21

p.s.w.g · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-24 15:02:30Z

3

You need to use a non-greedy quantifier:

<b>(.+?)</b>

This will ensure that the match stops at the first  it finds.

However, I would generally recommend using a proper XML or HTML parser for this sort of thing. Regular expressions are simply not powerful enough to handle the recursive structure of XML.

answered Apr 24, 2014 at 15:02

p.s.w.g

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2 Comments

John Dvorak Over a year ago

As soon as gets any attributes, this fails.

p.s.w.g Over a year ago

@JanDvorak true, and that's why I recommend using a proper parser.

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