this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2024
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[–] schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 88 points 1 month ago (3 children)

no, this is one of the worst answers on Stack Overflow

OP had a specific question to capture opening tags. The thing OP asked about can be done with regular expressions. It is true that arbitrarily nested languages like HTML cannot generally be parsed with regular expressions, but that is not what OP asked about.

[–] fartsparkles@sh.itjust.works 87 points 1 month ago (3 children)

This is StackOverflow after all. Your question is wrong. Your problem is wrong. You are wrong. I am right. Thread locked. Go read this other post that is totally unrelated to your problem I’ve decided isn’t the problem you’re facing because. I. Am. Right.

[–] Quetzalcutlass@lemmy.world 20 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

Could be worse. At least it's not Microsoft's support forums:

Hey, I see you're having problems with <copy-paste key words from OP>. Try the following and see if it fixes your issue.

Open a command prompt and enter ”sfc /scannow".

I hope this helps!

(Reply marked as solution, thread closed.)

[–] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I have X years experience with {keyword salad}.

Can you confirm {details already in the opening post}?

[–] lud@lemm.ee 4 points 1 month ago

answers.mirosoft.com is the worst. learn.microsoft.com can be decent at times though

[–] errer@lemmy.world 17 points 1 month ago

That’s why LLMs are so infuriatingly stubborn, they’re trained on these keyboard warriors

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 3 points 1 month ago

I had a decade old question marked as a duplicate and downvoted three times after years no no activity. SE is such a joke nowadays.

[–] moriquende@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It can't be done, as an opening tag in html can contain anything in its attributes, even JavaScript (e.g. onclick handler).

[–] schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de -1 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] moriquende@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

You can't parse every html opening tag with regex, because a html opening tag doesn't have a set structure. How would you match, with regex, this opening tag? <mytag myattribute="<value of \"myattribute\">" >

[–] schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Is this valid HTML? My understanding is that that attribute value needs to be escaped, i.e. &lt;value of \&quot;myattribute\&quot;&gt;.

[–] moriquende@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

The quote must not be escaped when you start with a single quote. The rest doesn't. This is valid and tested: <img alt='my "<img>"'>

[–] kbal@fedia.io 0 points 1 month ago

It can be done with simple regex of the kind proposed in various answers there iff the html is known to be limited to the subset of html where that sort of thing can easily be made to work. The question does not tell us whether or not that is the case, so everyone is free to make their own assumptions and argue as if they know what's going on.

[–] HStone32@lemmy.world 85 points 1 month ago (4 children)

SO in a nutshell:

"I need to do X"

"Have you tried Y?"

"No, because I don't need Y, I need X."

"Well you can do Z if you can't do Y."

"OK, sure. But how do I do X?"

"Why do you need to do X?"

(Explains why in my hyper-specific situation, I need to do X, and Y and Z won't work)

This question has been marked as a duplicate of "How to do Y"

[–] purplemonkeymad@programming.dev 12 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Except in 99% of cases the person is asking an xy problem, and if they ever explained the why, they would get a proper answer.

Often the reason no one does the hyper-specific thing, is that there are better non code solutions, it's massively insecure, or is just stupid micromanaging.

[–] HStone32@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago (2 children)

You know, when I typically ask a question on SO, its because I want to learn how that thing works, or how to write it myself. I usually say as much, but the SO folks are too focused on the ends, they completely neglect the means. Chances are I'm already aware of that no-code solution, but that's not what I'm asking for.

[–] orcrist@lemm.ee 4 points 1 month ago

I think there's an element of responsibility that some people feel when they respond. If you're asking for a very niche solution that is likely to create other problems in the future, should anyone else look at your code or refactor it or rely on it, or should you forget how it works, perhaps people are going to be less inclined in helping you craft it.

If you still want to craft it, that's okay, but you have to expect that some real percent of the answers are going to be those folk who know what the tried and true solution is, often because they've lived through the reality that you're attempting to create and they've dealt with the aftermath of doing it special and different.

[–] purplemonkeymad@programming.dev 1 points 1 month ago

Which is fine when people do not reject the answers that are different from what they were expecting. Learning that the problem you have is a reason that noone does this, is a valid thing to learn.

It's usually when I see people moving the goal posts on replies, or complaining that they didn't answer the exact question that i see as frustrating. Or "I don't want to do that" with no more info.

But if you are aware of other solutions, you should state that in the question and give your reasons. It's a waste of time if you know someone might suggest what you have dismissed already.

The html question is a classic for this, they want to find non self closed tags. Why? Why can't they use a parser? What are they doing with this info? All questions that would give you a good idea on how the problem can be solved. Playing with regex would be a valid answer to that, but is not stated. Unfortunately I find so's format discourages extra interrogation.

The answer is not an attack on the person, but a frustration at the people before that ignored previous answers to use a parser.

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

and if they ever explained the why, they would get a proper answer.

That's funny, every time I've explained in detail why my question isn't a duplicate nobody fucking cares and it still gets closed.

[–] winterayars@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 month ago

I would say it's more like: "How can I do X?" "Here are some reasons you can't do Y."

The answers should have been "Here are some reasons doing X is hard, but here's an attempt at it anyway and also some more robust alternatives to doing X." That would have been an excellent answer. (If you go down far enough you do start to see things like this but they're hindered by people still responding that you can't do Y or downvoting because they don't understand what's happening.)

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

More like:

  • How can I do X?
  • Marked as duplicate of "How can I do Y?"

Edit: I've got insomnia and don't have my glasses on and misread the end.

[–] interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 month ago

Always start SO questions with X/Y problem pre-empting

These people are everywhere and will stop at nothing to make you click on one of these

https://xyproblem.info/ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34444353 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XY_problem

They are trying to derail your question, which was already a generalized version of what your actual question was. And of course, you would need to explain everything you generalized out of your question (which would probably all get deleted by someone editing your question and removing all the irrelevant facts) by which point your question becomes so complicated nobody can answer it, even though they could have answered the generalized version.

My advice, just use chatgpt or mistral, 99% you will get a better answer than stackoverflow. And you will get this actionnable answer IMMEDIATELY !

[–] listless@lemmy.cringecollective.io 39 points 1 month ago (1 children)

https://www.zalgo.org/

T̸̛̟͚͋͛̈̊͜͝Ờ̶̤̫̦͙̜̫͇͕͈̘̭̈̑̓̀̈́̌͊͛̆͐̌̈́͝ͅN̸̯̫̺̄̿̎͗͗́͜Y̷̢̱͚̖̤̠̞͉̅́̋̉̿̇̎̋͆͝͝ ̸̧̡̨̧̡̛̖̤̜͔̲̯̞͉͈̻̎̈̄̓̊̄́̕͘͝͠ͅT̷͎̝͌̅̔̓̒H̷̨̧̧̳̱̜͓̮͍̣̬̩̜̙͚̑̌́̑͋̽͗̎͑̊͛̍́͒̕͝͠Ḙ̵̥̥̘̻͔͛̑͒̿͋͝͝ ̶̡͚̬͈̏͌̓̔̈̔̀͌̔̓̾̓͘͝P̷͙̃́̈͐̆̂́͗̏͌̈́Ô̶͎͓̹͖̘̟̬͚̻̦̩͔͛͜͠ͅŅ̶͖̜̱͍̦̔̊͐͆̾̎́́̈́̄̓ͅẎ̸̨̭̜̼͎̜̜͕̥͙̼̤̟̞̄̊̂́ͅ ̴̡̡̛̲̟̳̯͔̝̟͙̌̽͋̏̾̆̅̏̐̅͑̿̀͒̉H̵̪̞̩̥̫̺̅̑̈́̾͌͛́̾̅̈͛͒̾̌̈͐͝Ȅ̶̘̲͙̖̬̞͕̱͍̥͈̦͈͍͔̩̑̒̐̇̑̈́̏͊̽͜͝͝͝ ̸̨̛̛̻̘̙̯̰̦̻͈͓̒̽̉̈̄̌̄͊͂̈͆ͅC̵͙̗̣̮͈̜̪̞̰̣͎̙̏̌̄͗͜Ȯ̸͇̖̼͈̗̝͔̜̘̲̦̦̾̃̆̍͝͝ͅM̷̨̧̮͕̠̘̔ͅÉ̶̡̡̢̡͕̺̗̩̝̩͇͓̄͐͆͛̔̈́̕͜ͅS̵̡͙̬͔̞̞̳͓̜͔͑̌̓̎͆͌̈͌̌̂͛̚͘͝

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

d̶̢̢͖͉̪͖̠̹͇̺̜̼̦̗͍̓̅̊̋́̌̈́̌̐͐̔̅̄̚͜͝ͅͅȍ̷̢̧̦̼͉̝̦͓͖̽͜ǫ̷̫̤͐̀̾̈̇́̈́͛̐̔̀͜͜͝͝͠k̸̩̠̥̦̤̜͈͎̖̜̪̘͚̖̫̝̝͛̈́̇͒͜͝ͅì̷̧͈̥͇̤̝͈̹͕̽̑͌̐́̓̈́̈́ȩ̴̘̠͍͎̜̝̰̼̝̭̹͖͇͚̦͈̼̑̊͗́́̒͐̂̂̾̊̀͜͝

[–] communism@lemmy.ml 30 points 1 month ago (1 children)

OP isn't trying to parse HTML though.... they are trying to detect opening xml tags. Which seems quite achievable with regex.

[–] winterayars@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

It's still actually pretty sketchy, depending on exactly what you want to do. Strict regex still won't be able to match correctly if you want to match what an HTML parser considers the opening tag, though fancier regex will. If you're just looking for the tags in the HTML document as a flat document it's doable, though. (Mostly.)

[–] OpenStars@startrek.website 13 points 1 month ago

Calendar, remind me to ask StackOverflow tomorrow if I can ~~parse HTML with regexs~~ get someone else to do my class homework for me?

TH̘Ë͖́̉ ͠P̯͍̭O̚​N̐Y̡ H̸̡̪̯ͨ͊̽̅̾̎Ȩ̬̩̾͛ͪ̈́̀́͘ ̶̧̨̱̹̭̯ͧ̾ͬC̷̙̲̝͖ͭ̏ͥͮ͟Oͮ͏̮̪̝͍M̲̖͊̒ͪͩͬ̚̚͜Ȇ̴̟̟͙̞ͩ͌͝S̨̥̫͎̭ͯ̿̔̀ͅ

Sweet, my summoning spell worked!

[–] Nariom@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

I once applied to an internship for a company doing job offers aggregation. During the interview they explained to me that the core of what they did was parsing (partial) html with regex. When I asked why they wouldn't develop a custom parser, they replied to me that they were working on it, but that the internship wouldn't focus on that. I was not disappointed when it didn't get the job.

[–] fluckx@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

So all the misery in the world is related to webdevs trying to parse html with regex?

You bastards.

[–] solrize@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

There is a famous Erik Naggum rant about XML at, no wait, I better not link it but you can find it with a search engine if you want, which means you don't get to complain to me about it since you are the one who went looking for it. Very NSFW and VERY politically incorrect. Naggum died in 2009 but anyone who published a thing like that today would be raked over the coals.

[–] orcrist@lemm.ee 5 points 1 month ago

I'm not a professional code monkey although I've done a fair amount of coding, and every time I tried to do parsing myself, I later regretted it.

But telling people that they're doing it wrong is rarely met with positivity. :-)

[–] fubo@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

Once you learn about parser combinators, all other parsing looks pretty dopey.

[–] kbal@fedia.io 3 points 1 month ago

Using a regex on html is like eating wild mushrooms that you found in the woods. There are times where it's appropriate and safe, other times where it's completely insane and possibly deadly, and it takes considerable experience to know how to tell the difference.

[–] lnxtx@feddit.nl 1 points 1 month ago

Man, do gen z and alpha even know what Zalgo is?