Getting multiple tags from html source code in Objective-C - ios

Question

I have extracted the source code from a website but i would like to display the strings of three urls. I have managed to strip the code so the only url's are the ones I need. How can I get the three strings in an array. The URL's look like this: Example
where I need to extract the string: 'example'
I have tried the NSScanner but without any luck. Please advice

Answer 1

Not the most clever way, but you can get the first approach of > and then the first < from there. All with standard NSString methods like rangeOfString: and such.

Answer 2

This code with NSScanner should give you luck :)
-(NSMutableArray *)yourStringArrayWithHTMLSourceString:(NSString *)html {
NSString *from = #"<a href=\"";
NSString *to = #"</a>";
NSMutableArray *array = [[NSMutableArray alloc]init];
NSScanner* scanner = [NSScanner scannerWithString:html];
for(int x=0;x<3;x++) {//You said only 3 strings
NSString *tempString;
[scanner scanUpToString:from intoString:nil];
[scanner scanString:from intoString:nil];
[scanner scanUpToString:to intoString:&tempString];
NSString *str = [tempString substringFromIndex:[tempString rangeOfString:#"\">"].location+2];
[array addObject:str];
}
return array;
}
usage:
for example:
NSString *html = [NSString stringWithContentsOfURL:[NSURL URLWithString:#"http://facebook.com"] encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding error:nil];
NSLog(#"%#",[self yourStringArrayWithHTMLSourceString:html]);//will return NSMutableArray
Here is how to convert NSMutableArray to NSArray if you would like to to that:
NSArray *array = [NSArray arrayWithArray:mutableArray];