Expecting a little twitch to manipulate string Conditionally

[shahin]

Hi there all! Hope you are doing well. I would like to parse links from web which meet a certain condition. I would like to parse links only which contain "about:/wiki" in its first position, as in "about:/wiki/wikipedia". I suppose, if statement can do the magic. If anyone helps me do it, I would be very grateful. Thanks in advance. By the way, I've uploaded an image to make you understand what i meant, specially when you see the difference between the first two links and the rest.

Sub ConditionalLink()
Const url = "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page"
Dim Links As Object, Link As Object

With CreateObject("MSXML2.serverXMLHTTP")
    .Open "GET", url, False
    .setRequestHeader "Content-Type", "text/xml"
    .send
    Set html = CreateObject("htmlfile")
    html.body.innerHTML = .responseText
End With
Set Links = html.getElementsByTagName("a")
    For Each Link In Links
        x = x + 1
        Cells(x, 1) = Link.href
    Next Link
Set Links = Nothing
End Sub

 

[Chihiro]

You can use Instr function.

Like...

Sub ConditionalLink()
Const url = "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page"
Dim Links As Object, Link As Object

With CreateObject("MSXML2.serverXMLHTTP")
    .Open "GET", url, False
    .setRequestHeader "Content-Type", "text/xml"
    .send
    Set HTML = CreateObject("htmlfile")
    HTML.body.innerHTML = .responseText
End With
Set Links = HTML.getElementsByTagName("a")
    For Each Link In Links
        If InStr(1, Link.href, "about:/wiki/") > 0 Then
            x = x + 1
            Cells(x, 1) = Link.href
        End If
    Next Link
Set Links = Nothing
End Sub

 

[shahin]

Hi sir Chihiro, nice to have you in my thread. The solution you provided is exactly what I was expecting to have. Thanks a trillion.

 

[shahin]

Btw, what is the 1 for in InStr function? Forgive my ignorance. Is it always has to be 1 for a single string, I meant link?

 

[Chihiro]

1 is argument for starting position within string.

It's optional and isn't required (I usually have it as habit more than anything else).

See link for detail on Instr() function.
https://www.techonthenet.com/excel/formulas/instr.php

 

[shahin]

Thanks sir, for the clarity and the link.