Find & replace multiple keywords defined string

Question

I'm trying to remove the following string/line in my SQL database:

<p><span style="font-size:16px"><strong>The quick brown &nbsp;</strong></span><strong><span style="font-size:16px">fox jumps.</span></strong></p>

String will always start with  and end with 
String will always contain these words, in the same order: The, quick, brown. But they might be separated by something else (space,   or other HTML tags)
String is part of field with more text, nested HTML tags, so the solution must ignore higher level  tags.
We are talking about +20k matches, no manual edits solutions please :)

I have already tried doing it with RegExp but I can't filter for multiple keywords (AND operator).

I can export my DB to a sql file so I can use any solution you would recommend, Windows/Linux, text editor, js script etc. but I would appreciate the simplest and elegant solution.

Which SQL database? Are The, quick and brown always in same order? Do you want to remove the record, or just delete that text from the text of the field? — Amadan
– Amadan, Commented May 15, 2015 at 9:38
@Elyasin /<p.+The.+quick.+brown.+\/p>/; But since there are nested html tags, this will capture highest level  thus removing more than necessary. — Florin C.
– Florin C., Commented May 15, 2015 at 9:46
@FlorinC. Clarify this in your question. You are getting wrong answers this way. — Ely
– Ely, Commented May 15, 2015 at 9:49

Wiktor Stribiżew · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-15 10:30:42Z

1

I think you have to restrict .* by a non-efficient but more precise (?:(?!<\/?p[^<]*>).)* that will force to match the words inside 1  tag:

(?i)<p>(?:(?!<\/?p[^<]*>).)*the(?:(?!<\/?p[^<]*>).)*?quick(?:(?!<\/?p[^<]*>).)*?brown(?:(?!<\/?p[^<]*>).)*?<\/p>

See demo

answered May 15, 2015 at 10:30

Wiktor Stribiżew

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Comments

Yogesh_D · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-15 09:48:29Z

0

This expression ^.*The.*quick.*brown.*\$ worked for me:

 [root@fedora ~]# grep "^<p>.*The.*quick.*brown.*</p>\$" test1.txt
<p><span style="font-size:16px"><strong>The quick brown &nbsp;</strong></span><strong><span style="font-size:16px">fox jumps.</span></strong></p>
<p><strong>The quick brown &nbsp;</strong></span><strong><span style="font-size:16px">fox jumps.</span></strong></p>
<p>The quick brown &nbsp;</strong></span><strong><span style="font-size:16px">fox jumps.</p>
[root@fedora ~]#

answered May 15, 2015 at 9:48

Yogesh_D

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Florin C. Over a year ago

Unfortunately string is part of more text with nested HTML tags, your solution just matches my entire field text up to higher tags.

karthik manchala · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-15 09:58:07Z

0

You can use the following in any editor (say notepad++) or javascript or any PCRE engine with g, m, i modifiers to match:

^<p>.*?the.*?quick.*?brown.*?<\/p>$

Used .* instead of .+ because of your statement they MIGHT be separated by something else

and replace with '' (empty string)

edited May 15, 2015 at 9:58

answered May 15, 2015 at 9:48

karthik manchala

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1 Comment

Florin C. Over a year ago

Unfortunately string is part of more text with nested HTML tags, your solution just matches my entire field text up to higher  tags.

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