Question

I’m a noob to android development and i am trying to remove a string of dynamic characters from a string. My string:

"Beginning of String....<img src="http://webaddress.com" height="1" width="1"/>"

I want to remove the “&lt”, “&gt”, and everything between them. All i want is “Beginning of String…” So far i have tried this with no success.

description = description.replaceFirst("(?s)(&lt)(.*?)(&gt)","$1$3");

Also i tried this on a similar similar string and it worked fine, so i don’t understand what i am doing wrong.

description = description.replaceFirst("(?s)(<sub>)(.*?)(</sub>)","$1$3");

My class

public class RssReader {

private final static String BOLD_OPEN = "<B>";
private final static String BOLD_CLOSE = "</B>";
private final static String BREAK = "<BR>";
private final static String ITALIC_OPEN = "<I>";
private final static String ITALIC_CLOSE = "</I>";
private final static String SMALL_OPEN = "<SMALL>";
private final static String SMALL_CLOSE = "</SMALL>";


public static List<JSONObject> getLatestRssFeed(){
    String feed = "http://feeds.feedburner.com/MetalMarketCommentary";
    //http://globoesporte.globo.com/dynamo/futebol/times/vasco/rss2.xml
    //http://feeds.feedburner.com/GoldMoneyGoldResearch +
    //http://feeds.feedburner.com/GoldsilvercomNews +
    //http://feed43.com/7466558277232702.xml
    //http://feeds.feedburner.com/SilverGoldDaily
    //http://feeds.feedburner.com/MetalMarketCommentary
    //http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1683318714001?bckey=AQ~~,AAAAC59qSJk~,vyxcsD3OtBPHZ2UIrFX2-wdCLTYNyMNn&bclid=1644543007001&bctid=1854182861001

    RSSHandler rh = new RSSHandler();
    List<Article> articles =  rh.getLatestArticles(feed);
    Log.e("RSS ERROR", "Number of articles " + articles.size());
    return fillData(articles);
}



private static List<JSONObject> fillData(List<Article> articles) {

    List<JSONObject> items = new ArrayList<JSONObject>();
    for (Article article : articles) {
        JSONObject current = new JSONObject();
        try {
            buildJsonObject(article, current);
        } catch (JSONException e) {
            Log.e("RSS ERROR", "Error creating JSON Object from RSS feed");
        }
        items.add(current);
    }

    return items;
}



private static void buildJsonObject(Article article, JSONObject current) throws JSONException {
    String title = article.getTitle();
    String description = article.getDescription();
    description = description.replaceFirst("(?s)(<sub>)(.*?)(</sub>)","$1$3");
    int start = description.indexOf(".&");
    description= description.substring(0, start);
    String date = article.getPubDate();
    String imgLink = article.getImgLink();

    StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
    sb.append(BOLD_OPEN).append(title).append(BOLD_CLOSE);
    sb.append(BREAK);
    sb.append(description);
    sb.append(BREAK);
    sb.append(SMALL_OPEN).append(ITALIC_OPEN).append(date).append(ITALIC_CLOSE).append(SMALL_CLOSE);

    current.put("text", Html.fromHtml(sb.toString()));
    current.put("imageLink", imgLink);
}
}

XML I am parsing

<item>
           <title>Gold Market Recap Report</title>
           <link>http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MetalMarketCommentary/~3/jGYtkXdSKWs/mid-session-gold_703.html</link>
           <description>&lt;img src="http://www.cmegroup.com/images/1x1trans.gif?destination=http://www.cmegroup.com/education/market-commentary/metals/2012/09/mid-session-gold_703.html" alt=""/&gt;For the week December gold forged a trading range of roughly $37 an ounce. With gold prices attimes seemingly on the rocks and poised for a downside washout it was a change of pace to see afresh upside breakout in the Friday morning trade....&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MetalMarketCommentary/~4/jGYtkXdSKWs" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</description>
           <pubDate>Fri, 21 Sep 2012 19:50:37 GMT</pubDate>
           <guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.cmegroup.com/education/market-commentary/metals/2012/09/mid-session-gold_703.html?source=rss</guid>
           <dc:date>2012-09-21T19:50:37Z</dc:date>
           <feedburner:origLink>http://www.cmegroup.com/education/market-commentary/metals/2012/09/mid-session-gold_703.html?source=rss</feedburner:origLink>
      </item>

Answer 1

    String string = "Beginning of String....<img src=\"http://webaddress.com\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\"/>"; //Escape whatever has to be escaped
    System.out.println(string);
    int start = string.indexOf("&");
    int end = string.lastIndexOf("&");
    String temp = string.substring(start, (end+3));
    string = string.replace(temp, "");
    System.out.println(string);

This will remove anything between &lt and &gt, including them.