Regular Expressions: matching anything *but* a specificed string

[Jay S]

Hi,

Can't figure out the following:

<concept>
I want to match a specified string followed by any string that is *not* a
different specified string.
</concept>

<specific example>
strA = "value=&quot;"
strB = (anything other than strC, i.e. anything that is not "&quot;")
strC = "&quot;"

Sample string: value=&quot;Some text & punc. here!&quot;
Desired replacement: value="Some text & punc. here!"

It's not sufficient to simply replace "&quot;" with "\"" since I don't want
to replace all instances of "&quot;" in a given file.
</specific example>

Thanks for any help.
Jay

[Richard Brown]

When you doing this, just remember, a 'match' is consecutive characters ...
dont fall into the trap of thinking you can 'exclude' a string... what your
actually doing is creating two matches.

Now, as far as your problem, probably something like this will work....
(tested it with expresso, singleline ignore case settings)

The match string is --> (?<pre>.*?)(&quot;)(?<inner>.*?)(&quot;)(?<post>)
the replacement string is --> ${pre}"${inner}"${post}

Pretty easy to modify to do whatever else you might want, I definitely
recommend downloading Expresso, its free and really helps with RegExs.
"Jay S" <ja*@eatspammersforlunch.com> wrote in message
news:um**************@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...

Hi,

Can't figure out the following:

<concept>
I want to match a specified string followed by any string that is *not* a
different specified string.
</concept>

<specific example>
strA = "value=&quot;"
strB = (anything other than strC, i.e. anything that is not "&quot;")
strC = "&quot;"

Sample string: value=&quot;Some text & punc. here!&quot;
Desired replacement: value="Some text & punc. here!"

It's not sufficient to simply replace "&quot;" with "\"" since I don't
want
to replace all instances of "&quot;" in a given file.
</specific example>

Thanks for any help.
Jay

[Niki Estner]

That's called "negative lookahead": 'abc(?!def)' will match 'abc' unless
it's followed by 'def'.

Niki

"Jay S" <ja*@eatspammersforlunch.com> wrote in
news:um**************@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...

Hi,

Can't figure out the following:

<concept>
I want to match a specified string followed by any string that is *not* a
different specified string.
</concept>

<specific example>
strA = "value=&quot;"
strB = (anything other than strC, i.e. anything that is not "&quot;")
strC = "&quot;"

Sample string: value=&quot;Some text & punc. here!&quot;
Desired replacement: value="Some text & punc. here!"

It's not sufficient to simply replace "&quot;" with "\"" since I don't
want
to replace all instances of "&quot;" in a given file.
</specific example>

Thanks for any help.
Jay

[Jay S]

"Niki Estner" <ni*********@cube.net> wrote in message
news:Oh**************@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...

That's called "negative lookahead": 'abc(?!def)' will match 'abc' unless
it's followed by 'def'.

Niki, I tried negative lookahead before posting but couldn't get it to
handle the text after the parens. Thanks, though.

Jay

[Jay S]

"Richard Brown" <no****@stopspamnow.org> wrote in message
news:et*************@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...

When you doing this, just remember, a 'match' is consecutive characters .... dont fall into the trap of thinking you can 'exclude' a string... what your actually doing is creating two matches.

Now, as far as your problem, probably something like this will work....
(tested it with expresso, singleline ignore case settings)

The match string is --> (?<pre>.*?)(&quot;)(?<inner>.*?)(&quot;)(?<post>)
the replacement string is --> ${pre}"${inner}"${post}

Pretty easy to modify to do whatever else you might want, I definitely
recommend downloading Expresso, its free and really helps with RegExs.

Thanks, Richard, that works! What was confusing to me was that you can
exclude specific characters and you can do negative lookaheads, so I thought
you should be able to specify a string to exclude.

Thanks also for the Expresso recommendation; I just downloaded it.

Jay

[clintonG]

Check out the Regulator [1] as some are claiming they have abandoned
the use of Expresso. You know developers are just not loyal. :-)

--
<%= Clinton Gallagher, "Twice the Results -- Half the Cost"
Architectural & e-Business Consulting -- Software Development
NET cs*********@REMOVETHISTEXTmetromilwaukee.com
URL http://www.metromilwaukee.com/clintongallagher/

[1] http://royo.is-a-geek.com/iserializable/regulator/
"Jay S" <ja*@eatspammersforlunch.com> wrote in message
news:%2****************@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...

"Richard Brown" <no****@stopspamnow.org> wrote in message
news:et*************@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...

When you doing this, just remember, a 'match' is consecutive characters ...

dont fall into the trap of thinking you can 'exclude' a string... what

your

actually doing is creating two matches.

Now, as far as your problem, probably something like this will work....
(tested it with expresso, singleline ignore case settings)

The match string is --> (?<pre>.*?)(&quot;)(?<inner>.*?)(&quot;)(?<post>) the replacement string is --> ${pre}"${inner}"${post}

Pretty easy to modify to do whatever else you might want, I definitely
recommend downloading Expresso, its free and really helps with RegExs.

Thanks, Richard, that works! What was confusing to me was that you can
exclude specific characters and you can do negative lookaheads, so I

thought you should be able to specify a string to exclude.

Thanks also for the Expresso recommendation; I just downloaded it.

Jay