VBA getElementsByTagName Issues

[Makeshft]

Hello,

I am trying to acquaint myself with VBA's getElementsByTagName, but I am struggling to make it work for me. I use Microsoft Office 2013, and have enabled Microsoft Internet Control and Microsoft HTML Object Library. In the following code, I am trying to grab the birthdate and place it in cell A1. However, this code seems to do nothing. It does not seem to even produce an error.

Sub Extract_TD_text()

Dim URL As String
Dim IE As InternetExplorer
Dim HTMLdoc As HTMLDocument
Dim TDelements As IHTMLElementCollection
Dim TDelement As HTMLTableCell
Dim r As Long

'Saved from www vbaexpress com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=17
URL = [Wikipedia page for Rihanna (not allowed to paste HTML here)]

Set IE = New InternetExplorer

With IE
.navigate URL
.Visible = True

'Wait for page to load
While .Busy Or .readyState <> READYSTATE_COMPLETE: DoEvents: Wend

Set HTMLdoc = .document
End With

Set TDelements = HTMLdoc.getElementsByTagName("TD")


r = 0
For Each TDelement In TDelements
'Look for required TD elements - this check is specific to VBA Express forum - modify as required
If TDelement.className = "infobox.vcard.plainlist" Then
Sheet1.Range("A1").Offset(r, 0).Value = TDelement.innerText
r = r + 1
End If
Next
IE.Quit

End Sub

Thanks for your time.

[Teeroy]

Hi Makeshft,

Welcome to the forum.

Getting HTML info can be tricky. You need to delve into the page to understand its structure to get the right information back. In your case the information you really need is in the element after that whose className = "persondata-label". The following should produce a Table with the information that you want.

Dim URL As String
Dim IE As InternetExplorer
Dim HTMLdoc As HTMLDocument
Dim TDelements As IHTMLElementCollection
Dim TDelement As HTMLTableCell
Dim r As Long
Dim bGetNext As Boolean

'Saved from www vbaexpress com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=17
URL = "h**p://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rihanna" 'change the ** to tt

Set IE = New InternetExplorer

With IE
    .navigate URL
    .Visible = False
    
    'Wait for page to load
    While .Busy Or .readyState <> READYSTATE_COMPLETE: DoEvents: Wend
    
    Set HTMLdoc = .document
End With

Set TDelements = HTMLdoc.getElementsByTagName("TD")


r = 0
For Each TDelement In TDelements
    If bGetNext Then
        Sheet1.Range("A1").Offset(r - 1, 1).Value = TDelement.innerText
        bGetNext = False
    End If
    'Look for required TD elements - this check is specific to VBA Express forum - modify as required
    'Debug.Print TDelement.className '- useful for inspecting the HTML info
    If TDelement.className = "persondata-label" Then
        Sheet1.Range("A1").Offset(r, 0).Value = TDelement.innerText
        bGetNext = True 'Trigger to get the information from the next TDelement
        r = r + 1
    End If
Next
IE.Quit

End Sub

Hope this helps.

[Makeshft]

Thanks a ton Teeroy!

[Makeshft]

Sorry, but I'm still having a little trouble figuring out how you knew to look for the class name "persondata-label." I've been fiddling with Firefox inspect tools for a while now, and the only info I can find about the data is the "span-class" info for each piece of info. Is there anyway I could search by span class or other specific information (e.g. divclass)? If this question is a little too broad, is there any material you suggest I read to understand these functions better?

Thanks again!

[snb]

Sub M_snb()
    With New InternetExplorer
        .Navigate "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rihanna"
         
        Do
          DoEvents
        Loop Until .ReadyState = 4
             
        For Each it In .Document.getElementsByTagName("TD")
          If it.className = "persondata-label" Then c00 = c00 & "|" & it.innerText & "_" & it.className
        Next
    End With
    
    sn = Split(Mid(c00, 2), "|")
    Cells(1).Resize(UBound(sn) + 1) = Application.Transpose(sn)
End Sub

[Aurelius M]

I need help from the smart guys here on the site. The code snippet below don't give any errors and it looks that it works fine, but the TD element collection stays empty and the innerText is empty too. That while the data is showing in a visual browser. GetelementsbyTagName don't catch TDelements, and I can't figure out why ....

Sub Extract_TD_Text()
    Dim URL As String
    Dim wMatrix As String
    Dim Search As String
    Dim IE As InternetExplorer
    Dim HTMLdoc As HTMLDocument
    Dim myTable As HTMLObjectElement
    Dim TDelements As IHTMLElementCollection
    Dim TDelement As HTMLTableCell
    Dim rij As Long
    Dim bGetNext As Boolean
    
    URL = "https://www.nasdaq.com/market-activity/stocks/arch"
    wMatrix = "sector;industry;1 year target;forward p/e 1 yr.;earnings per share(eps);annualized dividend;ex dividend date;beta"
    
    Set IE = New InternetExplorer
    With IE
        .Navigate2 URL
        .Visible = False 'or True it don't matter
        'Wait for page to load
        While .Busy Or .ReadyState <> READYSTATE_COMPLETE: DoEvents: Wend
        rij = 0
        bGetNext = False
        Set HTMLdoc = .Document
        If HTMLdoc.getElementsByTagName("table")(0).getAttribute("class") = "summary-data__table" Then
            Set myTable = HTMLdoc.getElementsByTagName("table")(0)
            Set TDelements = myTable.getElementsByTagName("td")
            For Each TDelement In TDelements
                Search = LCase(Trim(TDelement.innerText))
                If Search = "" Then
                    Search = "Nothing Found"
                Else
                    Search = "*" & Search & "*"
                End If
                If bGetNext = True Then
                    Debug.Print TDelement.innerText 'Catch the data from the TDelement
                    bGetNext = False
                End If
                'Debug.Print TDelement.className '- useful for inspecting the HTML info
                If wMatrix Like Search Then
                    Debug.Print TDelement.innerText 'Show the string where searching for
                    bGetNext = True 'Trigger to catch the data from the next TDelement
                End If
                rij = rij + 1
            Next
        End If
    End With
    IE.Quit
End Sub

Thanks in advance.

[Paul_Hossler]

Welcome to the forum

Take a minute and read the FAQs in the link in my signature

Now ...

That was a 7 year old post. It's better it you start your own new thread using the [+Post New Thread] button top left

Reference this one if it contains pertinent information

[Aurelius M]

Thanks for the reply.
My problem is, I don't know to which topic (category) my post belongs.
It is very confusing for me. Maybe You can help me to choose which topic.
Marcus