C# - Convert HTML unordered list to array

Question

My HTML string is like this , stored in a variable named sourceCode

    <ul class="yom-list col first" style="width:33.333333333333%">
    <li class="first">
      <a href="/india/andaman-and-nicobar-islands/">
        <span>Andaman and Nicobar Islands</span>
      </a>
    </li>
      <li>
      <a href="/india/jammu-and-kashmir/">
        <span>Jammu and Kashmir</span>
      </a>
    </li>
    <li class="last">
      <a href="/india/andhra-pradesh/">
        <span>Andhra Pradesh</span>
      </a>
    </li>
      <li>
      <a href="/india/jammu-and-kashmir/">
        <span>Jammu and Kashmir</span>
      </a>
    </li>

  </ul>

I want to convert it in to a generic List So that I can access the data inside it in my code like href, name etc.. I have tried something like this

            foreach (Match match in Regex.Matches(sourceCode, @"<li><a href=""(?<url>[^""])</a></li>"))
            items.Add(new Item()
            {

                name = match.Groups["span"].Value, // i don't know how to get value inside that span
                url = match.Groups["url"].Value,

            });

But it does not work, Probably the regex is wrong. Can any one tell me what I am doing wrong? Note: I can't use HTMLAgilityPack in this project

If you are using XHTML, how about trying to use an XML Parser? — rhughes
– rhughes, Commented Jul 17, 2014 at 7:20

Avinash Raj · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-17 07:57:46Z

2

Try the below regex to get the values between <a href> tag and <span> tag only if it is present inside <li> tag.

/<li>\s*<a href=\"(?<url>[^"]*)\">\s*<span>(?<span>[^<]*)<\/span>/m

DEMO

Your c# code would be,

Regex rgx = new Regex(@"<li>\s*<a href=""(?<url>[^""]*)"">\s*<span>(?<span>[^<]*)</span>");
foreach (Match m in rgx.Matches(input))
{
Console.WriteLine(m.Groups["url"].Value);
Console.WriteLine(m.Groups["span"].Value);
}

IDEONE

edited Jul 17, 2014 at 7:57

answered Jul 17, 2014 at 7:37

Avinash Raj

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2 Comments

None Over a year ago

I am not able to add this regex inside my C# code Probably the syntax is different

Avinash Raj Over a year ago

@Athul see the IDEONE link on my answer.

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