Java RegEx Replace all to format data from XML

Question

Good afternoon all,

I've noticed they're a few similar problems on here already but non have been of much help to me so far. I am trying to manipulate a String returned by and existing method to format it in to a readable form. So for example I am trying to creates a String replaceAll() regular expression which will take the string

"<ds:AddressLine1>Birkmire Farm</ds:AddressLine1><ds:AddressLine2>Some Village</ds:AddressLine2><ds:AddressLine3>Wigfield</ds:AddressLine3><ds:AddressLine4>Cumbria</ds:AddressLine4><ds:UKpostcode>CA9 1EJ</ds:UKpostcode>"

and convert it to...

Birkmire Farm, Some Village, Wigfield, Cumbria, CA9 1EJ

The way I envisaged doing this was in three steps, firstly to replace all the closing tags with "", then to replace all the opening tags with ", " and finally use the String replaceFirst to remove the first comma and space placed at the front of the string.

The issue I am having is the RegEx I need to formulate a pattern to identify any opening tag ie and a pattern to identify any closing tag ie . Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

Have you forgotten what happens when you try to parse XML/HTML with regex? — Justin Morgan
– Justin Morgan, Commented May 14, 2012 at 19:48
Okay, all points above understood, and the posted link article makes it very clear :). But it is not an actual xml document I am parsing it's merely the string I gave in my question. Prince John, thank you for your suggestion I'm looking into that now. Any further suggestions on the best method of doing this would be appreciated if I am indeed barking up the wrong tree with my method. — JonnyIrving
– JonnyIrving, Commented May 15, 2012 at 8:27

Rob I · Accepted Answer · 2012-05-14 17:02:44Z

1

RE for opening tag: <[^/][^>]*>. RE for closing tag: </[^>]*>.

answered May 14, 2012 at 17:02

Rob I

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2 Comments

JonnyIrving Over a year ago

Thanks Rob, this has done the trick! Although all the talk of xml regex resulting in ever lasting pain has got me a bit worried!

Rob I Over a year ago

Definitely good to be worried. Honestly Java SAX parsing is super easy so I would check it out. Here is a SO question with an example; there's a few other useful links in there...

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