Regex Text File and format output

[stevio]

Hi all,

I'm trying to search a text file for 2 values using regex and format the output so that the values are side by side in a tab delimited format

Text file looks like this. 'Val' is constant, but the number after Val will be different
----------------------------
Value Val 1
.
.
more text here
.
.
Phone: 124566
.
.
Value Val 2
.
.
Phone: 345672
----------------------------

So the output should look something like (no headings required), only the raw data with a tab or space in between

Val 1 124566
Val 2 345672
I can find the first value, but don't know how to add the second value and format it. Can someone please help?

So far, the code looks like this:

Const ForReading = 1
Set objRegEx = CreateObject("VBScript.RegExp")
objRegEx.Global = True
objRegEx.Pattern = "Val\s+\d+"
Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile("C:\data.txt", ForReading)
strSearchString = objFile.ReadAll
objFile.Close

Set colMatches = objRegEx.Execute(strSearchString)
If colMatches.Count > 0 Then
   strMessage = "The following values were found:" & vbCrlf
   For Each strMatch in colMatches
       strMessage = strMessage &  strMatch.Value & vbcrlf
   Next
End If

Wscript.Echo strMessage

Current output looks like:

Val 1
Val 2
Val 3
etc

 

[tsuji]

>objRegEx.Pattern = "Val\s+\d+"
[tt]objRegEx.Pattern = "(Val[ ]+\d+)(\s|.)*?Phone:[ ]+(\d+)"[/tt]

>strMessage = strMessage & strMatch.Value & vbcrlf
[tt]strMessage = strMessage & & strMatch.submatches(0) & vbtab & strMatch.submatches(2) & vbcrlf[/tt]

ps: Do you know what commonly mean strMatch? It means strMatch is conceived as a string at least by the scripter. Why do you then go with that labour to put three letters s-t-r there just to mislead yourself?

 

[stevio]

tsuji,

can you please explain the regex. When I run it, it hangs.

objRegEx.Pattern = "(Val[ ]+\d+)(\s|.)*?Phone:[ ]+(\d+)"

my guess

Search for Val, one or more whitepace characters [ ], then one or more digits. Then search for any whitespace zero or more times with non-greedy search, then search for Phone:, one or more whitespaces and then one or more digits.

Thanks

 

[tsuji]

> When I run it, it hangs.
Not hang as long as your original not hang. Impossible to hang due to that functional block. What is your testing script then?

 

[stevio]

the problem was in the file, I copied the contents into another file and it ran fine.

tsuji, can you explain the use of (\s|.) in the regex, especially the | ?

btw, have star!!

 

[tsuji]

stevio, (\s|.)*? means this. It means to match either the blank space (the "\s" part) (which includes space, tab, line-feed, carriage return ...) or (the "|") any characters other than blank space (the "dot" part). Hence, (\s|.) practically match "anything". You need \s because the string will contain lots of line break. If you have multi-line property set and each match is carried on a single line, than you will see less often the part \s of (\s|.)*? and will see more often the non-greedy .*? .

 

[PHV]

HAve a look here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/script56/html/2380d458-3366-402b-996c-9363906a7353.asp

Hope This Helps, PH.
Want to get great answers to your Tek-Tips questions? Have a look at FAQ219-2884 or FAQ181-2886

 

[dm4ever]

you can also look at this site:

http://www.regular-expressions.info/

cheat sheet:

http://www.ilovejackdaniels.com/regular_expressions_cheat_sheet.pdf

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
dm4ever
My philosophy: K.I.S.S - Keep It Simple Stupid