Question

How can I extract the content (how are you) from the string:

<string xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/2003/10/Serialization/">how are you</string>. 

Can I use regex for the purpose? if possible whats suitable regex for it.

Note: I dont want to use split function for extract the result. Also can you suggest some links to learn regex for a beginner.

I am using python2.7.2

Answer 1

You could use a regular expression for this (as Joey demonstrates).

However if your XML document is any bigger than this one-liner you could not since XML is not a regular language.

Use BeautifulSoup (or another XML parser) instead:

>>> from BeautifulSoup import BeautifulSoup
>>> xml_as_str = '<string xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/2003/10/Serialization/">how are you</string>. '
>>> soup = BeautifulSoup(xml_as_str)
>>> print soup.text
how are you.

Or…

>>> for string_tag in soup.findAll('string'):
...     print string_tag.text
... 
how are you