Regular Expression - Need a simple pattern!

[mehdi]

Hi,
Consider the following string:

<div>whatever text goes here, and maybe it
contains a carriage return and/or line feed
and it spans in multiple lines</div>

How am I supposed to write an expression that returns the div's
content?
Any help would be highly appreciated,

TIA,
Mehdi

[clintonG]

http://www.regexlib.com/ is a good resource.

<%= Clinton Gallagher
NET csgallagher AT metromilwaukee.com
URL http://clintongallagher.metromilwaukee.com/
"mehdi" <me***********@gmail.comwrote in message
news:11**********************@u30g2000hsc.googlegr oups.com...

Hi,
Consider the following string:

<div>whatever text goes here, and maybe it
contains a carriage return and/or line feed
and it spans in multiple lines</div>

How am I supposed to write an expression that returns the div's
content?
Any help would be highly appreciated,

TIA,
Mehdi

[Kevin Spencer]

You can't, specifically. For example, the following will capture your
example:

(?s)<div>.*</div>

However, a div may contain nested elements, and if any of them is a div, it
will capture only the outermost div, as in:

<div>whatever text goes here, and maybe it
contains a carriage return and/or line feed
<div>whatever text goes here, and maybe it
contains a carriage return and/or line feed
and it spans in multiple lines</div>
and it spans in multiple lines</div>

So, you can't do this with a regular expression alone.

--
HTH,

Kevin Spencer
Microsoft MVP

Printing Components, Email Components,
FTP Client Classes, Enhanced Data Controls, much more.
DSI PrintManager, Miradyne Component Libraries:
http://www.miradyne.net

"mehdi" <me***********@gmail.comwrote in message
news:11**********************@u30g2000hsc.googlegr oups.com...

Hi,
Consider the following string:

<div>whatever text goes here, and maybe it
contains a carriage return and/or line feed
and it spans in multiple lines</div>

How am I supposed to write an expression that returns the div's
content?
Any help would be highly appreciated,

TIA,
Mehdi