Question

I am working with the following code block:

<UL id="nav-main-links"> <li class="standby" id="id61"> <a href="/?event=User.Home.dspHome" target="_self" title="Admin Tools"> Admin Tools<font class="menuItemType">(CB)</font> </a> <UL class="sub-nav-main-links nestingLevel1"> <li class="standby" id="id62"> <a href="/unsecured/sitesurvey.cfm" target="_blank" title="Site Survey"> Site Survey<font class="menuItemType">(X)</font> </a> </LI></UL></LI> <li class="standby" id="id57"> <a href="/?event=Mall.Information.dspInformation" target="_self" title="Mall Info"> Mall Info<font class="menuItemType">(CB)</font> </a> </LI> <li class="standby" id="id19"> <a href="/?event=SMS.SMSbroadcast.browseSMSbroadcasts" target="_self" title="Send sms text messages to your groups"> SMS<font class="menuItemType">(CB)</font> </a> <UL class="sub-nav-main-links nestingLevel1"> <li class="standby" id="id58"> <a href="/?event=SMS.SMSgroup.browseSMSgroups" target="_self" title="SMS Groups"> Groups<font class="menuItemType">(CB)</font> </a> </LI> <li class="standby" id="id59"> <a href="/?event=SMS.SMSkeyword.browseSMSkeywords" target="_self" title="SMS Keywords"> Keywords<font class="menuItemType">(CB)</font> </a> </LI></UL></LI> <li class="standby" id="id56"> <a href="/?event=Mall.Directory.dspList" target="_self" title="Directory"> Directory<font class="menuItemType">(CB)</font> </a> <UL class="sub-nav-main-links nestingLevel1"> <li class="standby" id="id35"> <a href="/?event=Mall.Directory.dspAdd" target="_self" title="Add New"> Add New<font class="menuItemType">(CB)</font> </a> </LI></UL></LI> <li class="standby" id="id2"> <a href="/admin2/mall/mallinfo.cfm" target="_self" title="Mall Info"> Mall Info<font class="menuItemType">(L)</font> </a> <UL class="sub-nav-main-links nestingLevel1"> <li class="standby" id="id17"> <a href="/sidefeature" target="_self" title="Side Features"> Side Features<font class="menuItemType">(L)</font> </a> </LI> <li class="standby" id="id18"> <a href="/admin2/misc/lakeElsinore/homepage.cfm" target="_self" title="Edit Homepage"> Edit Homepage<font class="menuItemType">(L)</font> </a> </LI></UL></LI> <li class="standby" id="id22"> <a href="/events/index.cfm" target="_self" title="Events"> Events<font class="menuItemType">(L)</font> </a> <UL class="sub-nav-main-links nestingLevel1"> <li class="standby" id="id23"> <a href="/admin2/bDayClub/index.cfm" target="_self" title="Birthday Club"> Birthday Club<font class="menuItemType">(L)</font> </a> </LI> <li class="standby" id="id24"> <a href="/admin2/misc/12days.cfm" target="_self" title="12 Days Points"> 12 Days Points<font class="menuItemType">(L)</font> </a> </LI> <li class="standby" id="id25"> <a href="/admin2/darkSite/dsForm.cfm" target="_self" title="Emergency Info"> Emergency Info<font class="menuItemType">(L)</font> </a> </LI> <li class="standby" id="id26"> <a href="/admin2/mnog/mnog.cfm" target="_self" title="MNOG"> MNOG<font class="menuItemType">(L)</font> </a> </LI> <li class="standby" id="id27"> <a href="/admin2/mnog/eforl.cfm" target="_self" title="Earning for Learning"> Earning for Learning<font class="menuItemType">(L)</font> </a> </LI> <li class="standby" id="id28"> <a href="/admin2/partners/partners.cfm" target="_self" title="Partners"> Partners<font class="menuItemType">(L)</font> </a> </LI> <li class="standby" id="id29"> <a href="/admin2/events/raceForReceipts.cfm" target="_self" title="Race for Receipts"> Race for Receipts<font class="menuItemType">(L)</font> </a> </LI></UL></LI> <li class="standby" id="id30"> <a href="/admin2/mall/MallHours.cfm" target="_self" title="Hours"> Hours<font class="menuItemType">(L)</font> </a> </LI> <li class="standby" id="id31"> <a href="/admin2/mall/dir/" target="_self" title="Directory"> Directory<font class="menuItemType">(L)</font> </a> </LI> <li class="standby" id="id32"> <a href="https://www.google.com/accounts/login" target="_self" title="Google Analytics"> Google Analytics<font class="menuItemType">(X)</font> </a> </LI> <li class="standby" id="id33"> <a href="/admin2/mall/fpurl/poolb.cfm" target="_self" title="I-Features"> I-Features<font class="menuItemType">(L)</font> </a> </LI> <li class="standby" id="id34"> <a href="/admin2/Mall/FPURL/PressReleaseUrban.cfm" target="_self" title="Press Releases"> Press Releases<font class="menuItemType">(L)</font> </a> </LI> <li class="standby" id="id36"> <a href="/admin2/store/retailerNav.cfm" target="_self" title="Retail"> Retail<font class="menuItemType">(L)</font> </a> <UL class="sub-nav-main-links nestingLevel1"> <li class="standby" id="id37"> <a href="/admin2/coupons/coupondirect.cfm" target="_self" title="Coupons"> Coupons<font class="menuItemType">(L)</font> </a> </LI> <li class="standby" id="id38"> <a href="/storeOffers/" target="_self" title="License To Shop"> License To Shop<font class="menuItemType">(L)</font> </a> </LI> <li class="standby" id="id39"> <a href="/admin2/Jobs-old/old/jobAdmin.cfm" target="_self" title="Jobs"> Jobs<font class="menuItemType">(L)</font> </a> </LI> <li class="standby" id="id40"> <a href="/admin2/store/modStore.cfm?mode=sales" target="_self" title="Sales and Events"> Sales and Events<font class="menuItemType">(L)</font> </a> </LI> <li class="standby" id="id41"> <a href="/admin2/MDB/" target="_self" title="MDB Data"> MDB Data<font class="menuItemType">(L)</font> </a> </LI> <li class="standby" id="id42"> <a href="http://mdb2.mallfinder.com/retail%20hub/" target="_self" title="MDB Application"> MDB Application<font class="menuItemType">(X)</font> </a> </LI> <li class="standby" id="id43"> <a href="/admin2/MDB/Reports/index.cfm" target="_self" title="Swipe Reports"> Swipe Reports<font class="menuItemType">(L)</font> </a> </LI> <li class="standby" id="id44"> <a href="/admin2/mallSlideShows.cfm" target="_self" title="Slide Shows"> Slide Shows<font class="menuItemType">(L)</font> </a> </LI></UL></LI> <li class="standby" id="id45"> <a href="/email/epostCard.cfm" target="_self" title="Email"> Email<font class="menuItemType">(L)</font> </a> <UL class="sub-nav-main-links nestingLevel1"> <li class="standby" id="id46"> <a href="/email/admEmail.cfm" target="_self" title="AdmEmail"> AdmEmail<font class="menuItemType">(L)</font> </a> </LI> <li class="standby" id="id47"> <a href="/email/ddrEPostCard.cfm" target="_self" title="DDR Email"> DDR Email<font class="menuItemType">(L)</font> </a> </LI> <li class="standby" id="id48"> <a href="/email/epnew.cfm" target="_self" title="New Email"> New Email<font class="menuItemType">(L)</font> </a> </LI> <li class="standby" id="id50"> <a href="/email/emailReport.cfm" target="_self" title="Email Report"> Email Report<font class="menuItemType">(L)</font> </a> </LI> <li class="standby" id="id51"> <a href="/directMail/index.cfm" target="_self" title="Direct Mail"> Direct Mail<font class="menuItemType">(L)</font> </a> </LI> <li class="standby" id="id52"> <a href="/workflow/workflow_Entryform.cfm" target="_self" title="Change Orders"> Change Orders<font class="menuItemType">(L)</font> </a> </LI></UL></LI> <li class="standby" id="id53"> <a href="/contactus.cfm" target="_self" title="Contacts"> Contacts<font class="menuItemType">(L)</font> </a> <UL class="sub-nav-main-links nestingLevel1"> <li class="standby" id="id54"> <a href="http://vendor1.retailhub.com/index.cfm" target="_self" title="Ven"> Ven<font class="menuItemType">(X)</font> </a> </LI> <li class="standby" id="id55"> <a href="/SponsorShip/spEvents.cfm" target="_self" title="SponsorShip"> SponsorShip<font class="menuItemType">(L)</font> </a> </LI></UL></LI></UL> 

and the following pseudo block in cfml:

<cfscript>
    myDisplay=structnew();
    myDisplay.pseudo=pseudo;
    myDisplay.IdsToRemove="60|61";
    myDisplay.RegExTestPattern='<li[^>]*?!id="id(' & myDisplay.IdsToRemove & ')".*?li>';
    myDisplay.Menu=reReplaceNoCase(myDisplay.pseudo,myDisplay.RegExTestPattern,"","All");   
</cfscript>

I am trying to rework the regex pattern so it removes all the LIs with ids != to 1 to x values i.e. 60|61. Ideas?

Answer 1

I can’t help much with the coldfusion part of this, but regular expression aren’t too hard. They’re just not always the right tool for the job.

First off, remember that regular expressions don’t do numeric evaluations. So to do something like match numbers from 56 to 61, you’d need to use /(5[6-9]|6[01])/ or /(56|57|58|59|60|61)/. So you’ll need to construct your number ranges as patterns.

So… The RE that matches a particular list item might be:

/ <li class="standby" id="id${RE}"> .*? <\/LI>/

This uses .*?, a “lazy star” that expands to the minimum possible characters required to match … i.e. the next occurrence of </LI>. The thing that complicates this is that you have nested <UL>s. So a lazy star won’t always get you to the right place.

While it might be possible to achieve this with a fancy Perl-style RE, I don’t think it can be achieved in an Extended RE. I don’t know if Coldfusion understands Perl REs.

You might want to explore using something like XPath to walk through the HTML, instead of building a big gnarly regular expression.