Finding every table elements in html using regex in java

Question

I have a html as string. I want to find every table element (open-close tags) with regex. I tried <table(.*?)>.*</table> pattern for it. But it doesn't work because, it matches something like between first table open tag and last table close tag.

Here is my code:

Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("<table(.*?)>.*</table>");

and also I've tried:

Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("<table(.*?)>.*</table>",Pattern.DOTALL);

Here is an instance:

    <table id="table1">
    </table>
    <table id="table2">
       <table id="table3">
       </table>
    </table>

My pattern finds all the elements between <table id="table1"> open tag and table2's close tag.

But I want it matches every table element with it's tag. For example: table1's open-close tags, table2's open-close tags..

Thanks for your answers.

Parsing HTML with regular expressions is considered bad practice. You should use a sophisticated HTML parser instead. See [Using regular expressions to parse HTML: why not?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/590747/using-regular-expressions-to-parse-html-why-not) — vanje, Dec 27 '17 at 12:19

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 27 '17 at 12:10

0

I think you have a bit logic problem, the following regex will give you each opening table tag in a group:

\s*(<table.*>)

although it can't match its closing tag, what you can do is just concatenate closing tag in the table child items, and for the parents just fix it manually

answered Dec 27 '17 at 12:10

tomersss2

135
12

your pattern works fine on find each opening table tag but i dont understand how to match close tag. can you explain with an example? – Veysel Dec 27 '17 at 12:22
You don't need to match closing tags, just add them as is it as they are fixed, you can also look for them literally , regex can't find you the matching closing tag for each table if there is more than 1 level on paranting – tomersss2 Dec 27 '17 at 13:22

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 27 '17 at 13:08

I think there is no good solution to your question. Because you can't parse HTML with a regex.

Take a look at this answer:

Regular expressions are a tool that is insufficiently sophisticated to understand the constructs employed by HTML. HTML is not a regular language and hence cannot be parsed by regular expressions. Regex queries are not equipped to break down HTML into its meaningful parts.

https://stackoverflow.com/a/1732454/2801860

Finding every table elements in html using regex in java

2 Answers2