How to parse information between two strings using regular expressions?

Hello,

I am trying to parse some information contained between the two strings "<sample>" and "</sample>" . I am new to regular expressions and would like to know what expression suits my requirement. The strings i mentioned have some operators in them. This is making the job difficult.

Regards, Math

[Guillaume]

If you need more help than Thorsten's answer (which pretty much tells you everything that there is to it), then show us your current regular expression.

[Math]

"str = '<sample>a,b,c</sample>' "

I want to extract a,b,c from the str above into another string (say extract = a,b,c).

I wrote the following pattern:

"pat = '(<sample>)||(<\/sample>)' "

However, extract = regexp(str,pat,'match') yields " '<sample></sample>' " and not a,b,c.

help regexp says

| Match subexpression before or after the |

How do i get a,b,c to the string variable extract ? Please help.

Answer 1

[Andrei Bobrov]

str = '<sample>a,b,c</sample>';
out = regexp(str,'((?<=<sample>).*(?=<\/sample>))','match')

or

t = regexp(str,'<(|\/)sample>','splite')
out = t(~cellfun(@isempty,t))

Answer 2

[Thorsten]

help regexp

There it says

Characters that are not special metacharacters are all treated literally in
a match.  To match a character that is a special metacharacter, escape that
character with a '\'.

[Math]

Please read my latest comment to the question above.

Answer 3

[Niels]

Alternatively, you may also consider using regexprep instead of regexp.

>> extract = regexprep(str,pat,'')
extract =
a,b,c

[Math]

Thanks Niels. This solves the purpose too.