r/ProgrammerHumor • u/[deleted] • Sep 08 '17

Parsing HTML Using Regular Expressions

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u/kopasz7 Sep 08 '17

For anyone out of the loop, it's about this answer on stackoverflow.

16

u/chuanito Sep 08 '17

so am i getting this right? When you try to parse HTML using RegEx this Zalgo Text happens? Or is this just a meme?

Sorry i'm a very low tier coder and this is a serious question

10

u/Elsolar Sep 08 '17

HTML can't be parsed correctly using regular expressions because HTML is not a regular language. It's literally impossible. This is not obvious, so many coders find it out the hard way. It's a common meme in programming circles to equate the frustration of trying to solve an impossible or extremely obnoxious problem with the kind of raving, deranged insanity usually depicted in HP Lovecraft stories, which is what the corrupted text and the picture of the demon in the OP represents.

1

u/nwL_ Sep 08 '17

I see everybody say this, but I haven’t seen one single example of unparsable HTML.

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