3

Typing this in scala (pattern matching with a regexp to find the value of the id field

val str = """<path sodipodi:nodetypes="csszsscsscssssscssssscc" inkscape:connector-curvature="0" id="basarbre" d="M 111.11111,111.11111 C 101.11111,111.1001 111.11111,111.11111 111.1011,101.01111 111.11111,111.1111 111.11111,110.11111 111.10111,111.11101 110.01111,111.11111 110.11111,111.11101 111.11111,111.01111 110.11111,111.1111 101.11111,111.10111 111.11111,111.11111 111.11111,101.11111 111.11111,111.11111 111.11111,111.11111 111.11111,111.11101 111.11111,101.11111 111.11111,101.11111 111.11111,101.11111 111.111,111.11101 101.01111,110.11111 111.11111,111.11111 101.1111,111.11111 101.11101,110.11111 111.10111,110.11101 101.11111,111.11111 101.11111,111.11111 101.11111,111.11111 111.11111,110.1111 111.10111,111.11111 111.11011,111.11111 111.11101,111.11111 111.01111,111.11111 110.11111,111.11111 111.11111,111.11111 110.01111,111.11111 111.11111,111.11111 111.11111,111.11111 111.01111,101.11111 111.11111,111.11101 110.11011,110.11111 101.11111,111.01111 11.111111,111.11111 11.111111,111.11111 11.111111,111.11111 11.111111,111.11111 11.111111,111.1111 10.111111,111.11111 11.111111,101.11111 11.010111,100.11111 11.111111,110.11111 11.111111,110.11111 11.111111,111.11111 11.111111,111.11111 11.010111,111.1111 11.101111,111.01111 11.11011,101.11111 -11.111111,110.11111 11.011111,111.11111 11.111111,111.10101 11.11111,111.11111 111.11101,111.01011 111.11101,111.01011 z" style="fill:#511b00;fill-opacity:1;stroke:none" xmlns:inkscape="http://www.inkscape.org/namespaces/inkscape" xmlns:sodipodi="http://sodipodi.sourceforge.net/DTD/sodipodi-0.dtd" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:osb="http://www.openswatchbook.org/uri/2009/osb"/>"""

val Idpattern = """.*id="([^"]*)"(?:[\n\r\t]|.)*""".r

str match {
  case Idpattern(id) => id
  case _ => "no id"
}

Yields the following exception trace:

at java.util.regex.Pattern$GroupTail.match(Pattern.java:4615)
at java.util.regex.Pattern$BranchConn.match(Pattern.java:4466)
at java.util.regex.Pattern$CharProperty.match(Pattern.java:3694)
at java.util.regex.Pattern$Branch.match(Pattern.java:4502)
at java.util.regex.Pattern$GroupHead.match(Pattern.java:4556)
at java.util.regex.Pattern$Loop.match(Pattern.java:4683)
at java.util.regex.Pattern$GroupTail.match(Pattern.java:4615)
at java.util.regex.Pattern$BranchConn.match(Pattern.java:4466)
at java.util.regex.Pattern$CharProperty.match(Pattern.java:3694)
...

How can I overcome this problem? I could try parsing xml with a library but I don't need something so obfuscated. I thought regexp could be fast and reliable.

Improve this question
2
  • 1
    You might not think you need the complexity of an xml parser, but unless you control your inputs carefully, you could find issues. For example, if your input includes the string "id=" somewhere (like this comment does), it could break unexpectedly. Commented Sep 14, 2013 at 18:42
  • It might not be able to recognise which is the right id to extract the value from. The id in kmorris' comment won't break it though, but something like id="" in the string (after the first id="basarbre") will. Commented Sep 14, 2013 at 18:55

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
5

Actually scala provides native xml manipulation. So if you remove the """ at the beginning and end of str, it will become a NodeSeq that you can easily manipulate, like: 

val str = <path sodipodi:nodetypes="csszsscsscssssscssssscc" inkscape:connector-curvature="0" id="basarbre" d="M 111.11111,111.11111 C 101.11111,111.1001 111.11111,111.11111 111.1011,101.01111 111.11111,111.1111 111.11111,110.11111 111.10111,111.11101 110.01111,111.11111 110.11111,111.11101 111.11111,111.01111 110.11111,111.1111 101.11111,111.10111 111.11111,111.11111 111.11111,101.11111 111.11111,111.11111 111.11111,111.11111 111.11111,111.11101 111.11111,101.11111 111.11111,101.11111 111.11111,101.11111 111.111,111.11101 101.01111,110.11111 111.11111,111.11111 101.1111,111.11111 101.11101,110.11111 111.10111,110.11101 101.11111,111.11111 101.11111,111.11111 101.11111,111.11111 111.11111,110.1111 111.10111,111.11111 111.11011,111.11111 111.11101,111.11111 111.01111,111.11111 110.11111,111.11111 111.11111,111.11111 110.01111,111.11111 111.11111,111.11111 111.11111,111.11111 111.01111,101.11111 111.11111,111.11101 110.11011,110.11111 101.11111,111.01111 11.111111,111.11111 11.111111,111.11111 11.111111,111.11111 11.111111,111.11111 11.111111,111.1111 10.111111,111.11111 11.111111,101.11111 11.010111,100.11111 11.111111,110.11111 11.111111,110.11111 11.111111,111.11111 11.111111,111.11111 11.010111,111.1111 11.101111,111.01111 11.11011,101.11111 -11.111111,110.11111 11.011111,111.11111 11.111111,111.10101 11.11111,111.11111 111.11101,111.01011 111.11101,111.01011 z" style="fill:#511b00;fill-opacity:1;stroke:none" xmlns:inkscape="http://www.inkscape.org/namespaces/inkscape" xmlns:sodipodi="http://sodipodi.sourceforge.net/DTD/sodipodi-0.dtd" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:osb="http://www.openswatchbook.org/uri/2009/osb"/>

val idAttribute = str \\ "@id"     

val  id = if (idAttribute.isEmpty) "no id" else idAttribute.text

You can read more here

Improve this answer
Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

2 Comments

Nice trick. I knew this possibility but thank you for reminding.
Not really a trick. A recent answer elsewhere referenced the notorious stackoverflow.com/a/1732454/1296806 . And see stackoverflow.com/q/590747/1296806 . But core xml has been split into a subproject; maybe all the more reason to pick your xml poison.
2

For a task like this, its better to write a regex that only matches part of the string:

scala> val Idpattern = """id="([^"]*)"""".r
scala> Idpattern.findFirstMatchIn(str).map(_.group(1))
res10: Option[String] = Some(basarbre)

This way, the regex engine can start by scanning through the string for an 'i'. With your original regex, the greedy .* will match the entire string, and then the regex engine will start backtracking from the end. As for why your regex blew the stack, I think this might be a problem with Java's handling of the alternation at the end of the regex, but I'm not really sure. The shorter regex gives less opportunity for recursion.

Improve this answer

1 Comment

Define task like this? See my answer for nicer idiom. My identifier limit is two to the fourth chars.
2

Here is the correction to the regex, where you are trying to consume line endings. The (?s) turns on DOTALL so dot matches it.

scala> val Idpattern = """.*id="([^"]*)"(?s).*""".r
Idpattern: scala.util.matching.Regex = .*id="([^"]*)"(?s).*

scala> str match { case Idpattern(id) => id }
res6: String = basarbre

Here's the better way to find the pattern in Scala:

scala> val Idpattern = """ id="([^"]*)" """.r.unanchored
Idpattern: scala.util.matching.UnanchoredRegex =  id="([^"]*)" 

scala> str match { case Idpattern(id) => id }
res7: String = basarbre
Improve this answer

Comments

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.