Simple regex to parse files headers.

Question

User-1668256174 posted

Hello everybody,

I need a regex that would help me to parse files headers.

Here is an example :

/* =================================================================================*/
/*    Creation date            :  09/01/2013      */
/*    Writer               :  Jean Dupont     */
/*    Procedure goal        :  Ceci est un exemple de fichier qui permet de   */
/*      :  stocker des calculs mathématiques.          */
/*         Ces calculs proviennent des serveurs du groupe */
/*      :  C1-03 qui est = au groupe C2-02 .  */
/*      :  Si ces calculs sont = à 0 alors ne pas en tenir  */
/*      :  compte.  */
/* =================================================================================*/
/*    Paramètre reçu  1           :       */
/* ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
/*    Paramètre retourné  1       :                                                 */
/* =================================================================================*/
/*    Date de modification :                                                        */
/*    Rédacteur                 :                                                 */
/*    But modification            :                                                 */
/* =================================================================================*/

I would like to retrieve with a regex, the part "Procedure goal" :

Ceci est un exemple de fichier qui permet de   */
/*      :  stocker des calculs mathématiques.          */
/*         Ces calculs proviennent des serveurs du groupe */
/*      :  C1-03 qui est = au groupe C2-02 .  */
/*      :  Si ces calculs sont = à 0 alors ne pas en tenir  */
/*      :  compte.  */

 

This part may end either by this line :

/* ============================================*/

either by this line :

/*----------------------------------------------------------------------*/

(the number of '=' or '-' is indifferent but always > 2)

It is important to test the presence of the '/*' and the '*/'.

And the number of lines is variable.

I made a regex, but it is too difficult and I don't get what I need.

'\/\*\s*(?i)procedure\s*goal\s*\:\s*(.*\s*\*\/(\r*\n*\/\*\s*\:*\s*[^\=]{2,}[^\=\-]{2,}\s*\*\/))(?!\/\*\s*\={2,}\s*\-{2,}\s*\*\/)'

Thanks a lot for your help.

Eric.

Answer 1

User1508394307 posted

The simplest pattern is 

Procedure\s+goal\s+:((.|\n)*?)(===|---)

or

Procedure\s+goal\s+:((.|\n)*?)(/\*\s*[=-]*\s*\*/)

where you can capture the required text using

Regex regex = new Regex(
      "Procedure\\s+goal\\s+:((.|\\n)*?)(===|---)",
      RegexOptions.None);
Match m = regex.Match(InputText);
string text = m.Groups[1].Value;

There are many variants to improve the pattern depends on requirements,

e.g. if you need to match "Procedure goal" only at the beginning of the string you can add /*s+

/*\s+Procedure\s+goal...

If you don't want to use Match.Groups you can do

(?<=Procedure\s+goal\s+:)(.|\n)*?(?=(/\*\s*[=-]*\s*\*/))

etc.

Answer 2

User-1668256174 posted

Thank you very much smirnov !

I will try this tomorrow at my office (in about 10 hours).

And I will give you feed back.

Regards.

Eric.

Answer 3

User-1668256174 posted

smirnov,

the regex works very fine, and I thank you once again.

Is there a way to retrieve only the part "procedure goal" (as you show me) but without the \n, \r, /* , */ and the first ':' of each line ?

Eric.

 

 

 

Answer 4

User1508394307 posted

Well, I think it must be possible to adjust the pattern to do this, but it would too complex and might not cover all possible cases. I would recommend to run second regex, or regex.replace to "clean" the first match.

Regex regex = new Regex(@"Procedure\sgoal\s+:(.*?)/*===", RegexOptions.Singleline);

Match m = regex.Match(InputText);
string text = m.Groups[1].Value;

text = Regex.Replace(text, @"\*/\r\n/\*\s+:?", "");

Hope this helps.

Answer 5

User-1668256174 posted

Ok smirnov,

Thank you.

You have saved me a lot of time.

Eric