Php regexp --> C++

[michkine]

Hi,

For some reason, I need to find the equivalent in C++ of the following php code :
ereg_replace("<[^>]*>","**",$string);

This replaces all html tags in a string by "**".

Is there any way to do the same thing in C++ ?

Thanks for your help,

OlgaM.

[Sang-drax]

boost.org has a regex library.

[Philandrew]

iterate through each character of the string with a for loop
if its a character you don't like, change it to a *

if(string[i] == "<" || string[i] == ">") {
string[i] = "*";
}

[quzah]

Shouldn't that be single quotes?

Quzah.

[CornedBee]

Yes, and it doesn't work anyway, because it doesn't replace the whole tag.

Would be quite easy though to build an FSM to do this job. Whoppin' 2 states...

[michkine]

iterate through each character of the string with a for loop if its a character you don't like, change it to a *

Thanks, but this is not exactly what i need

1st : I need to replace ANY html tag, this means <td> as well as < td class='classe'> or <anything> for example...

2nd : I have to do this for a complete HTML document, approx 7000 lines or more...so iteration is definitely not a good solution

That's why I need to use Regexp for they are fast... the problem is I know how to code this in PHP, but I'm a noob in C++ on this particular point.

boost.org has a regex library.

I have seen that. But I would really appreciate something more precise, more simple

Thanks for your help !

[Hunter2]

I have to do this for a complete HTML document, approx 7000 lines or more...so iteration is definitely not a good solution

Well, any regex library you use is going to have to do the same processing anyway, perhaps a little less efficiently since they're built for more generic use.

Try something like:
Keep a bool called inTag or something, initial state false. Iterate through the string, and if inTag is true, replace the character with a '*', otherwise write it as is. Whenever you hit a '<', set inTag to true, when you hit '>' set inTag to false.

If you're a stickler for speed, it might improve performance to read large blocks of data at a time and search through a buffer instead of reading on a byte-by-byte basis.

[CornedBee]

Actually, the iteration solution is considerably faster than any regex. Although, with such a simple regex, the limiting factor will always be I/O speed.

As I said, a primitive finite state machine would also do.

state = TEXT;
iterate over characters {
  if character is '<' then {
    state = TAG;
    output '*'
  } else if character is '>' then {
    state = TEXT;
    output '*';
  } else if state == TEXT {
    output character;
  }
}

[major_small]

HTML.cpp

here's an old program I just dug up for you - it goes through an HTML document and converts everything in the tags (with the exception of string literals) into uppercase letters. for example:

<a href="AaBb">AaBb</a>

will become

<A HREF="AaBb">AaBb</A>

I don't know how well it works (I haven't looked at in in a while), but I've used it on all my webpages...


looking back at the known bugs section I wrote myself, I could probably write a quick fix for them if I really wanted to...