Member Avatar for CooRay

I am trying to search a dataset I have populated from several XML files for certain words in each column. The dataset table is "item" and the columns I want searched is "descritption". "description" are several articles from an rss feed. I want to search the articles for sports players names. For example in the article
"Jimmy Graham returns to a limited practice - Jimmy Graham | NO" I would like to search for "Jimmy Graham" and once found I want the entire article description to be displayed in a listbox. I am essentially searching for player names which the user enters in another listbox (addteamform.addplayerlistbox) for articles containing that player name, then displaying them in another listbox (mainform.articlelistbox). here is my code I am using to try to search the dataset/dataview for a specific name in an article. I am sure the code is all wrong for what I'm trying to do...

 Public Shared Sub searchPlayers()
        MainForm.articleListBox.DataBindings.Clear()

        Dim ds As DataSet = New DataSet

        ds.ReadXml("http://www.rotoworld.com/rss/feed.aspx?sport=nfl&ftype=news&count=12&format=rss")
        ds.ReadXml("")
        ds.ReadXml("http://www.fantasyfootballstarters.com/podcast.xml")
        ds.ReadXml("")
        ds.ReadXml("")
        ds.ReadXml("http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/rss.xml")
        ds.ReadXml("http://feeds2.feedburner.com/fantasyfootballcom")

        Dim dv As New DataView
        dv.Table = ds.Tables("item")
        Dim drv As DataRowView 'Data Row View object to query DataView object

        'Filter based on a listbox value selected
        dv.RowFilter = "title" & CInt(addTeamForm.playerListBox.SelectedItem)

        'Retrieve my values returned in the result
        For Each drv In dv
            MainForm.articleListBox.Items.Add("title")
        Next





    End Sub
  • 2 Contributors
  • 1 Reply
  • 303 Views
  • 4 Days Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by G_Waddell

Dani AI

Generated

— short, practical fix and a couple of safer options (and a note on 's scraping idea).

For RSS feeds prefer a syndication parser instead of fragile screen-scraping; the .NET Syndication types give you a consistent item model (Title, Summary/Content, Links) you can read and then search. See the SyndicationFeed docs for examples. (learn.microsoft.com)

A simple, robust approach is: load your feeds into a DataTable (or into SyndicationFeed.Items), then loop rows and use a case-insensitive IndexOf check on the description. That avoids RowFilter escaping headaches and gives you control (strip HTML if you need full-text matching). Example (VB.NET):

' Assume "dt" is the DataTable with the RSS items
Public Shared Sub SearchPlayersFromTable(dt As DataTable)
    MainForm.articleListBox.Items.Clear()
    Dim players = addTeamForm.playerListBox.Items.Cast(Of Object)() _
                  .Select(Function(o) o.ToString()).ToArray()
    Dim seen As New HashSet(Of String)(StringComparer.OrdinalIgnoreCase)
    For Each r As DataRow In dt.Rows
        Dim desc = If(r.IsNull("description"), String.Empty, r("description").ToString())
        desc = System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.Replace(desc, "<.*?>", "") 'optional: remove tags
        For Each p In players
            If Not String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(p) AndAlso desc.IndexOf(p, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) >= 0 Then
                Dim title = If(dt.Columns.Contains("title") AndAlso Not r.IsNull("title"), r("title").ToString(), desc)
                If seen.Add(title) Then MainForm.articleListBox.Items.Add(title)
                Exit For
            End If
        Next
    Next
End Sub

If you want to use a DataView / RowFilter instead, build safe LIKE expressions (escape single quotes and any wildcard characters). DataView.RowFilter uses the DataColumn.Expression syntax; both "*" and "%" work as wildcards and special chars must be escaped. Example filter: description LIKE '%Jimmy Graham%' (use an escape helper around user names). See the DataColumn.Expression and DataView.RowFilter docs for the exact escaping rules. (learn.microsoft.com)

Troubleshooting tips: verify the table/column names (DataSet.Tables.Contains("item")), handle DBNulls, avoid duplicate adds (use a HashSet), and cache feeds if you hit many URLs. Screen-scraping is a fallback; for RSS content the syndication API or plain XML parsing is simpler and more reliable. For DataTable.Select alternatives see docs. (learn.microsoft.com)

Member Avatar for G_Waddell

Hi,
You should be able to pick up some freeware Screen scraping software to do this for you...

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.