asked on

Regular expression to fix html errors

Hi,

I'm having to edit another person's HTML code (hundreds of files) and so many times   is written as just &nbsp - which can cause some browsers to render it as text. Also all singular ampersands "&" should be written as & to be HTML4.01 compliant (and XHTML) - I think.

I'm using TextPad and I just need a simple regex that will let me replace an instance of "&nbsp" that ISN'T "&nsbp;" with " ". And also instances of JUST "&" (with possibly preceding and after letters, if written incorrectly) with &

Obviously will need two Regex's but simpler to ask in one question. I just can't seem to get my head round the regex's since most websites seem to have disgustingly complicated ways of explaining them. I've tried http://www.regular-expressions.info/ which seems useful if you have twenty hours of time to learn, which unfortunately I don't :)

So thanks in advance,

Dave

Bob Learned

Start with:

Replace &nsbp[^;] with &nsbp;

Bob

davehamer

ASKER

That unfortunately doesn't work;

I already tried that one from reading the examples, however in Textpad it selects the &nbsp and the following character.

For example" &nbsp<img" with that replace would become " img".

Perhaps there is a command that I am missing to "save" the end character so that it can be used in the replacement?

I've upped the points to 80; I'm sure that this is a simple answer tho.

Dave.

Bob Learned

Try this:

&nsbp(?![;])

Bob

davehamer

ASKER

Doesn't match anything this time :(

Bob Learned

Where are you running this from? I tested it in VB.NET, but it should still be a valid expression.

I tested the expression with the specific case of &nbsp<img and got  <img.

Bob

davehamer

ASKER

Hi Bob,

Thanks for your replies; I'm using TextPad 4.7.3 as specified in the original question. The reg-ex engine in this piece of software should be the same as any else AFAIK.

It is available as a trial download from:

http://www.textpad.com/download/index.html#downloads

Thanks;

Dave

Bob Learned

Right, I have a few Regular Expression questions in play, and I just got a little confused.

Bob

Bob Learned

BTW, not all Regular Expression engines are the same.

Bob

Bob Learned

This is confusing, because I checked the Posix option for Regular Expressions in preferences, and I looked up that the '?!' is a negative lookahead expression character, and still it doesn't find anything.

(Scratching head)

Bob

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Bob Learned

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davehamer

ASKER

Thanks for your further help;

I've improved the expression further:

By using :

\(&nbsp\)\([^;]\)

This still selects the next char as well, but I can then use the replacement syntax of:

\1;\2

The only problem is that the expression will ONLY match &nbsp that is followed by ANOTHER character. Unfortunately it won't match line breaks so if a line just contains &nbsp (which it does cos this guy is a muppet) it won't be matched. I suppose I could use a second regex to match those ones( The simplest being "&nbsp\n" - maybe you can build this into a single regex? I dont know because I'm still new to this.

Thanks for your help so far Bob, hopefully we can get this one kicked in the head; putting points upto 100 for when we get a completed answer.

Dave

Bob Learned

I am fresh out of ideas, sorry :(

Bob

davehamer

ASKER

Since no-one else has contributed a correct answer; I will submit the points to Bob but with a lower grade due to a slightly incomplete answer.

Ty;
Dave