Remove a part of string via first and last character?

Question

I am getting a HTML string as a result of querying a remote XML feed. I use the result to set text to a TextView. The problem is that a string contains HTML comment tags which are not supported by the TextView element.

Now, I need a way to remove (substring) the resulting string by indicating the part which will be removed. I cannot work via start and end positions, but I have to use starting and ending string pattern ( as ending).

How can I do this?

@DaUltimateTrooper take care when using Regexes on HTML/XML though, only in some special cases they are the right tool (though this might be one). Often you should use a HTML/XML parser. — dtech, May 04 '12 at 08:34

waqaslam · Answer 1 · 2012-05-04T11:50:04.550

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perhaps use this:

String str = "your html string";
int start = str.indexOf("<!--");
int end = str.indexOf("-->");
str = str.replace(str.substring(start, (end - start)), "");

edited May 04 '12 at 11:50

answered May 04 '12 at 08:34

waqaslam

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Better use `int end = str.lastIndexOf("-->");` – J.A.I.L. May 04 '12 at 08:40
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nope, i dont think. Because you never know if there are a couple of comments inside html. – waqaslam May 04 '12 at 08:46
@Waqas I pointed it out because I thought there could be nested comments[, but I see it's not legal in valid HTMLs](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/442786/are-nested-html-comments-possible). And I wasn't thinking in opening one comment, closing it and oppening (and closing) another comment. – J.A.I.L. May 04 '12 at 10:38
@Waqas This code removed everything BUT the each ending "-->". If I try to add + 1 to end, then the app crashes. – sandalone May 04 '12 at 10:54
Hm... have you tried this? Now it returns another string `ref; -->`. – sandalone May 04 '12 at 17:48

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:08

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I found this in here. I believe that since android is a tag here the answer will be relevant.

android.text.Html.fromHtml(instruction).toString()

Remove HTML tags from a String.

edited May 23 '17 at 10:08

Community

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answered May 04 '12 at 08:35

Thihara

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+1 for posting just before me. You don't really need the `toString()` though. – Jave May 04 '12 at 08:37
I just copied the answer from the link below it ;). I suppose it serves for clarity just in case! – Thihara May 04 '12 at 08:39
Thanks for a good tip. But I do not want to remove HTML. Just comments tag – sandalone May 04 '12 at 08:48

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered May 04 '12 at 08:38

You can use regular express, e.g.

    String input = "<!-- \nto be removed -->hello <!-- to be removed-->world";
    Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("<!--.*?-->", Pattern.DOTALL | Pattern.UNICODE_CASE | Pattern.MULTILINE);
    Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(input);
    StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
    int lastIndex = 0;
    while (matcher.find()) {
        builder.append(input.substring(lastIndex, matcher.start()));
        lastIndex = matcher.end();
    }
    builder.append(input.substring(lastIndex));
    System.out.println(builder);

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered May 04 '12 at 08:35

0

You can also use HTML.fromHTML

answered May 04 '12 at 08:35

Gaurav Agarwal

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I cannot! That's the reason I posted this question – sandalone May 04 '12 at 08:47
If so, use regex. Read Regular Expression Cookbook http://www.amazon.com/Regular-Expressions-Cookbook-Jan-Goyvaerts/dp/0596520689/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1336121466&sr=8-1 – Gaurav Agarwal May 04 '12 at 08:52

Jave · Answer 5 · 2012-05-04T08:54:33.117

0

You can use the Html.fromHtml() method to use html-formatted text in a TextView, example:

CharSequence text = Html.fromHtml("before <!--comment--><b>after</b>");
myTextView.setText(text);

The TextView will now have the text "before after".

edited May 04 '12 at 08:54

answered May 04 '12 at 08:35

Jave

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Remove a part of string via first and last character?

5 Answers5