How to extract text matching a regex using Vim?

Question

I would like to extract some data from a piece of text with Vim. The input looks like so:

72" title="(168,72)" onmouseover="posizione('(168,72)');" onmouseout="posizione('(-,-)');">>
72" title="(180,72)" onmouseover="posizione('(180,72)');" onmouseout="posizione('(-,-)');">>
72" title="(192,72)" onmouseover="posizione('(192,72)');" onmouseout="posizione('(-,-)');">>
72" title="(204,72)" onmouseover="posizione('(204,72)');" onmouseout="posizione('(-,-)');">>

The data I need to extract is contained in the title="(168,72)" portions of the input. In particular, I am interested in extracting coordinate pairs in parentheses.

I thought about using Vim to first delete everything before title=", but I am not really a regex guru, so I am asking you. If anyone has any hint, please let me know! :)

Like other posted vim use of stream expression is very powerful. These stream manipulator are also available whit sed (almost the same thing whitout the `:%`). If you want to learn more about these expressions have a look at this [sed introduction](http://www.grymoire.com/Unix/Sed.html). — Lynch, Jul 03 '11 at 19:01

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 03 '11 at 18:50

5

This will replace each line with a tab-delimited list of coordinates per line:

:%s/.* title="(\(\d\+\),\(\d\+\))".*/\1\t\2

answered Jul 03 '11 at 18:50

MrWednesday

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score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 04 '11 at 17:19

4

This task can be achieved with a much simpler solution and with few keystrokes using normal command:

:%normal df(f)D

This means:

% - Run normal command on all file lines;
normal - run the following commands in normal mode;
df( - delete everything until you find a parenthesis (parenthesis included);
f) - move the cursor to );
D - delete everything until the end of the line.

You can also set a range, for example, run this from line 5 to 10:

:5,10normal df(f)D

answered Jul 04 '11 at 17:19

Magnun Leno

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Interesting way to do this without macros – Drasill Jul 06 '11 at 21:48
normal command is a very powerful tool. It's almost a "one time macro". – Magnun Leno Jul 08 '11 at 16:18

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 03 '11 at 19:31

3

If you want an ad hoc solution for this one-off case, it might be quicker simply to select a visual block using CTRL-v. This will let you select an arbitrary column of text (in your case, the column containing title="(X,Y)"), which can then be copied as usual using y.

answered Jul 03 '11 at 19:31

Prince Goulash

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Yeah a quick no-brain series I find my self using is: `^vGx.......` judging the number of repeats (`.`) visually - pragmatic but works fine 80% of the cases – sehe Jul 03 '11 at 23:05

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 03 '11 at 18:52

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you can match everything inside title=() and discard everything else like this:

:%s,.*title="(\(.*\))".*,\1,

answered Jul 03 '11 at 18:52

Ярослав Рахматуллин

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How to extract text matching a regex using Vim?

4 Answers4

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