Problem with a regular expression

[charles.nadeau]

I have the following code snippet:

require 'net/http'
begin
hdoc =
Net::HTTP.get(URI.parse('http://finance.yahoo.com/lookup?s=Dupont&t=S&m=US'))

re = /<TD>(.*)</TD>/
if hdoc =~ re
print "#{$&}\n"
else
print "Nothing\n"
end
end

The regular expression is never matched when I use the code as shown
above (the expression for re is just a simple one for my testing).
However, if I replace the variable name hdoc by a string like
"<TD>Test</TD>Test1", the regular expression is matched. The type of
hdoc is String. What is wrong with the snippet above. I even tried to
replace hdoc by hdoc.to_s and it still doesn't work.
Thanks for your help!

Charles

 

[Aaron Patterson]

Hi,

I have the following code snippet:

require 'net/http'
begin
hdoc =
Net::HTTP.get(URI.parse('http://finance.yahoo.com/lookup?s=Dupont&t=S&m=US'))

re = /<TD>(.*)</TD>/
if hdoc =~ re
print "#{$&}\n"
else
print "Nothing\n"
end
end

The regular expression is never matched when I use the code as shown
above (the expression for re is just a simple one for my testing).
However, if I replace the variable name hdoc by a string like
"<TD>Test</TD>Test1", the regular expression is matched. The type of
hdoc is String. What is wrong with the snippet above. I even tried to
replace hdoc by hdoc.to_s and it still doesn't work.
Thanks for your help!

It looks like there are no upper case "TD" tags in the page that you are
fetching. Try this instead:

begin
hdoc = Net::HTTP.get(URI.parse('http://finance.yahoo.com/lookup?s=Dupont&t=S&m=US'))

re = /<TD>(.*)<\/TD>/i
if hdoc =~ re
print "#{$&}\n"
else
print "Nothing\n"
end
end

Your regular expression was case sensitive, I changed it to be case
insensitive by adding the "i" switch.

 

[Morton Goldberg]

require 'net/http'
begin
hdoc =
Net::HTTP.get(URI.parse('http://finance.yahoo.com/lookup?
s=Dupont&t=S&m=US'))

re = /<TD>(.*)</TD>/
if hdoc =~ re
print "#{$&}\n"
else
print "Nothing\n"
end
end

Whrn I substitute '\/TD' for '/TD' and make the regex case
insensitive, I get a match. See below:

<code>
! /usr/bin/env ruby -w
require 'net/http'
hdoc = Net::HTTP.get(URI.parse('http://finance.yahoo.com/lookup?
s=Dupont&t=S&m=US'))
re = /<TD>(.*)<\/TD>/i ### note changes
if hdoc =~ re
puts "#{$&}\n"
else
puts "Nothing\n"
end
</code>

<result>
<td><table border="0" cellpadding="6" width="100%"
cellspacing="0"><tr><td bgcolor="#556f93"><big><b
style="color:#ffffff">Symbol Lookup </b></big></td></tr></table></
td></tr><tr><td></td></tr></table></td></tr><tr><td><table
cellpadding="0" border="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td></td></tr></
table></td></tr><tr><td valign="top"><form><table border="0"
cellpadding="4" bgcolor="a0b8c8" cellspacing="1"><tr><td
bgcolor="eeeeee"><table cellpadding="1" width="100%"
cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Name:</td><td>Type:</td><td>Market:</td><td></
td></tr><tr><td><input size="30" name="s"></td><td><select
name="t"><option selected value="S"> Stocks </option><option
value="E"> ETFs </option><option value="I"> Indices </option><option
value="M"> Mutual Funds </option><option value="F"> Futures </
option></select></td><td><select name="m"><option selected
value="US">U.S. & Canada</option><option value="ALL">World Market</
option></select></td><td><input value="Look Up" type="submit"></td></
tr><tr><td valign="bottom" colspan="4"><small><a href="http://
finance.yahoo.com/exchanges">View supported exchanges</a></small></
td></tr></table></td></tr></table></form><table><tr><td
align="left">2 results for <b>'Dupont'</b> (type=<b>Stocks</b>,
market=<b>U.S. &amp; Canada</b>)</td></result>

Regards, Morton

 

[David Vallner]

--------------enig280BCDB6206058B773A41139
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

re =3D /<TD>(.*)</TD>/

Use a HTML parser? Hpricot considered sexy recently.

David Vallner


--------------enig280BCDB6206058B773A41139
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Content-Description: OpenPGP digital signature
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="signature.asc"

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--------------enig280BCDB6206058B773A41139--

 

[charles.nadeau]

Whrn I substitute '\/TD' for '/TD' and make the regex case
insensitive, I get a match. See below:

<code>
! /usr/bin/env ruby -w
require 'net/http'
hdoc = Net::HTTP.get(URI.parse('http://finance.yahoo.com/lookup?
s=Dupont&t=S&m=US'))
re = /<TD>(.*)<\/TD>/i ### note changes
if hdoc =~ re
puts "#{$&}\n"
else
puts "Nothing\n"
end
</code>

<result>
<td><table border="0" cellpadding="6" width="100%"
cellspacing="0"><tr><td bgcolor="#556f93"><big><b
style="color:#ffffff">Symbol Lookup </b></big></td></tr></table></
td></tr><tr><td></td></tr></table></td></tr><tr><td><table
cellpadding="0" border="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td></td></tr></
table></td></tr><tr><td valign="top"><form><table border="0"
cellpadding="4" bgcolor="a0b8c8" cellspacing="1"><tr><td
bgcolor="eeeeee"><table cellpadding="1" width="100%"
cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Name:</td><td>Type:</td><td>Market:</td><td></
td></tr><tr><td><input size="30" name="s"></td><td><select
name="t"><option selected value="S"> Stocks </option><option
value="E"> ETFs </option><option value="I"> Indices </option><option
value="M"> Mutual Funds </option><option value="F"> Futures </
option></select></td><td><select name="m"><option selected
value="US">U.S. & Canada</option><option value="ALL">World Market</
option></select></td><td><input value="Look Up" type="submit"></td></
tr><tr><td valign="bottom" colspan="4"><small><a href="http://
finance.yahoo.com/exchanges">View supported exchanges</a></small></
td></tr></table></td></tr></table></form><table><tr><td
align="left">2 results for <b>'Dupont'</b> (type=<b>Stocks</b>,
market=<b>U.S. &amp; Canada</b>)</td></result>

Regards, Morton

Morton, Aaron,

You are both right, thanks a lot! I also added "m" at the end of the
regular expression to match whatever might span two lines.
Cheers!

Charles

 

[charles.nadeau]

Whrn I substitute '\/TD' for '/TD' and make the regex case
insensitive, I get a match. See below:

<code>
! /usr/bin/env ruby -w
require 'net/http'
hdoc = Net::HTTP.get(URI.parse('http://finance.yahoo.com/lookup?
s=Dupont&t=S&m=US'))
re = /<TD>(.*)<\/TD>/i ### note changes
if hdoc =~ re
puts "#{$&}\n"
else
puts "Nothing\n"
end
</code>

<result>
<td><table border="0" cellpadding="6" width="100%"
cellspacing="0"><tr><td bgcolor="#556f93"><big><b
style="color:#ffffff">Symbol Lookup </b></big></td></tr></table></
td></tr><tr><td></td></tr></table></td></tr><tr><td><table
cellpadding="0" border="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td></td></tr></
table></td></tr><tr><td valign="top"><form><table border="0"
cellpadding="4" bgcolor="a0b8c8" cellspacing="1"><tr><td
bgcolor="eeeeee"><table cellpadding="1" width="100%"
cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Name:</td><td>Type:</td><td>Market:</td><td></
td></tr><tr><td><input size="30" name="s"></td><td><select
name="t"><option selected value="S"> Stocks </option><option
value="E"> ETFs </option><option value="I"> Indices </option><option
value="M"> Mutual Funds </option><option value="F"> Futures </
option></select></td><td><select name="m"><option selected
value="US">U.S. & Canada</option><option value="ALL">World Market</
option></select></td><td><input value="Look Up" type="submit"></td></
tr><tr><td valign="bottom" colspan="4"><small><a href="http://
finance.yahoo.com/exchanges">View supported exchanges</a></small></
td></tr></table></td></tr></table></form><table><tr><td
align="left">2 results for <b>'Dupont'</b> (type=<b>Stocks</b>,
market=<b>U.S. &amp; Canada</b>)</td></result>

Regards, Morton

Morton, Aaron,

You are both right, thanks a lot! I also added "m" at the end of the
regular expression to match whatever might span two lines.
Cheers!

Charles