Html agility pack - how extract value after <Strong> tag

Question

0.00/5 (No votes)

See more:

I am writing to seek help, as to how I can extract the value ‘Editor’s Pick’ from the following html data source:

<P align=justify>Editor's picks<BR><A href="/Article.asp?PUB=250&ISS=22792&SID=52855&TS=1&article=Idiosyncratic risk" name="" target=_blank>Idiosyncratic risk?</A>

So far, I have created the following function, which is currently returning null.

C#

public static string getHTMLTags()
    {

        string url = "";

        string data = storyMethod();

        HtmlDocument html = new HtmlDocument();
        html.LoadHtml(data);

        var nodes = html.DocumentNode.SelectNodes("//p[@align=justify]//strong[1]");

        if (nodes != null)
        {
            foreach (var node in nodes)
            {
                string Description = node.InnerHtml;
                return Description;
            }
        }

        return null;

    }

Any further assistance as to what methods/properties I could use within the Html agility pack, which could help me to solve this task.

Expected output:
Editor's picks

Thank you for any further assistance.

Posted 11-May-15 5:38am

miss786

Add a Solution

1 solution

Add a Solution

Add your solution here

Treat my content as plain text, not as HTML

Preview 0

…

Existing Members

Sign in to your account

...or Join us

Download, Vote, Comment, Publish.

Your Email
Password
Forgot your password?

Your Email
This email is in use. Do you need your password?
Optional Password

I have read and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
Please subscribe me to the CodeProject newsletters

When answering a question please:

Read the question carefully.
Understand that English isn't everyone's first language so be lenient of bad spelling and grammar.
If a question is poorly phrased then either ask for clarification, ignore it, or edit the question and fix the problem. Insults are not welcome.
Don't tell someone to read the manual. Chances are they have and don't get it. Provide an answer or move on to the next question.

Let's work to help developers, not make them feel stupid.

This content, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

Richard Deeming · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-11T06:09:00

The problem is that your <P> tag isn't closed, so HAP is treating the <strong> tag as a sibling element, not a child element.

The solution is buried in the discussions on the CodePlex site:

Sloppy Html doesn't parse [^]

Now, you can tweak the HTML agility pack to better suit what you expect using the HtmlNode.ElementFlags static property ... What you can do is tell it you don't want to support unclosed <p> tags:

C#
HtmlNode.ElementsFlags.Remove("p"); // remove the Empty and Closed flags
HtmlDocument doc = new HtmlDocument();
doc.Load(...);

You're also missing quotes around the attribute value, and you should only use a single / for the descendant node:

C#

HtmlNode.ElementsFlags.Remove("p");
HtmlDocument html = new HtmlDocument();
html.LoadHtml(data);

var nodes = html.DocumentNode.SelectNodes("//p[@align='justify']/strong[1]");
return nodes == null ? null : nodes.Select(n => n.InnerHtml).FirstOrDefault();

// Result:
// Editor's picks<br><a href="/Article.asp?PUB=250&ISS=22792&SID=52855&TS=1&article=Idiosyncratic risk" name="" target="_blank">Idiosyncratic risk?</a>