Need Regular Expressions help with my expression

simpleonline1234 · Jun 19, 2012

I have a string of text that I am trying to match in my application.

This is the series that I am matching

//images.slashdot.org/hc/45/7ee10c139d5a.jpg

The only constant is going to be the amount of digits between the first two backslashes but then the actual jpg can vary.

I've tried this but I am not able to grab anything.

/hc/45/b6ffeb799a4e.jpg
\/\/images\.slashdot\.org\/[a-zA-Z0-9]\/[a-zA-Z0-9]\/[a-zA-Z0-9]\.jpg

Any ideas on where my expression is going wrong?

ugjunk · Jun 19, 2012

Try this one :

Code:

/\bimages.slashdot.org/[a-zA-Z0-9]*/[a-zA-Z0-9]*/[a-zA-Z0-9]*.jpg\b/g

It's matching your current link right now. I can further tweak it and modify for you if you need.

b0xys · Jun 19, 2012

try this
(?<=\/\/images\.slashdot\.org\/hc\/45\/).*(?=\.jpg)

or this
\/\/images\.slashdot\.org\/hc\/45\/.*\.jpg

amazonian raider · Jun 19, 2012

Your regex is only matching a single character between each of the slashes and then a single character for the name of the jpg. Use the asterisks like ugjunk and that element of the regex will repeat as many times as it needs to before the next element is found.

Since you said the number of characters between the slashes is constant, you could also put :

[a-zA-Z0-9][a-zA-Z0-9]

Between each of the slashes rather than:

[a-zA-Z0-9]*

The first option will match any two character long letter-number combination. With the asterisk it will match any N character long combination (meaning if there were 3, 4, 5, 72, etc characters between the slashes the asterisk would still find the match). This may or may not be an issue depending on the exact URLs you need it to match or not match.

simpleonline1234 · Jun 19, 2012

I'm coming up with an error of "Object reference not set to an instance of an object."

This may be easier for me this way. What would be the RegEx to grab anything and everything between two backslashes like this /everythinghere/

I know there is some sort of wild card like an * or a way to say anything in between the backslashes I want to grab it regardless of what is it is.

Thanks again guys.

ugjunk · Jun 20, 2012

Use this expression code and it would grab anything in between those two slashes.

Code:

/\b[a-zA-Z0-9]*\b/g

simpleonline1234 · Jun 20, 2012

Okay so I've tried all the advice given and I still don't get the result. Here is my actual code toggled to my button.

Code:

[COLOR=#ffffff][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]

Private[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]Sub[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2] Button8_Click([/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]ByVal[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2] sender [/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]As[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2] System.Object, [/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]ByVal[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2] e [/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]As[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2] System.EventArgs) [/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]Handles[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2] Button8.Click
[/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]
Dim[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2] request [/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]As[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2] HttpWebRequest = HttpWebRequest.Create(URLofSite.Text)
[/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]Dim[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2] response [/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]As[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2] HttpWebResponse
response = [/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]CType[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2](request.GetResponse, HttpWebResponse)
[/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]
Dim[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2] webstream [/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]As[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2] Stream = response.GetResponseStream
[/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]
Dim[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2] streamreader [/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]As[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]New[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2] StreamReader(webstream, Encoding.UTF8)
[/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]
Dim[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2] html [/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]As[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]String[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2] = streamreader.ReadToEnd
sourcecode = html.ToString
SourceViewer.Text = sourcecode.ToString
[/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]
Dim[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2] sitekey [/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]As[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]String
[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]Dim[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2] value [/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]As[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]String[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2] = RawCaptcha.Text
[/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]Dim[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2] m [/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]As[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2] Match = Regex.Match(SourceViewer.Text, CaptchaFinal.Text, RegexOptions.IgnoreCase)
[/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]If[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2] (m.Success) [/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]Then
[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]Dim[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2] key [/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]As[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]String[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2] = m.Groups(1).Value
sitekey = (key.ToString)
[/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]
End[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]If
[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]
Dim[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2] mymove [/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]As[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]String[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2] = [/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]"http:"[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2] & sitekey.ToString

MessageBox.Show(mymove.ToString)
[/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]
End[/SIZE][/SIZE][SIZE=2][SIZE=2]Sub
[/SIZE][/SIZE][/COLOR]

Here is my app in action.

andee · Jun 20, 2012

why dont you try widening it a little, it might be easier to match

<img scr.*? width=127 height =70

then just remove the extra match text
like
string = string.replace("<img scr", "")
string = string.replace("width=127 height = 70, "")
string = string.trim

ugjunk · Jun 20, 2012

I tried this site while I was building expression for you it worked great.
http://gskinner.com/RegExr/

Try those expression I suggested and you will see it picks them up perfectly.

theMagicNumber · Jun 20, 2012

The working regex in VB.NET

Code:

 Dim Captcha As String = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Match(htm, "images\.slashdot\.org/hc/\d+/(.+?\.jpg)").Groups(1).Value

.(dot) matches everything except newline, unless you specify Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.Singleline.
The other option is using [\w\W] which matches everything including newline.
You have to use them with combination of +?("non greedy" .+? or [\w\W]+?) or they will match the entire string.
Hope this helps.

pro?po:coil · Jul 2, 2012

i solved it in js and java with a working example but the BHW moderation system blocked the message so i can't put code/links here :/
working example url: jsfiddle POINT net SLASH 69qMG
change the POINT to a . and SLASH to a /

Need Regular Expressions help with my expression

simpleonline1234

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