From: Mark Sparshatt <msparshatt@...>
Date: 2004-07-04T21:39:27+09:00
Subject: Re: Regular expression question

George Moschovitis wrote:

>Hello everyone!
>
>I have a question regarding regular expressions. Let me explain
>with an example. I have the string:
>
>"{b}Text{/b} kokoko {b}Lalal{/b}"
>
>and i want to convert it to this string
>
>"<b>Text</b> kokoko <b>Lalal</b>"
>
>if I use the following gsub:
>
>str.gsub!(/\{b\}(.*)\{\/b\}/, '<b>\1</b>')
>  
>
try this

str.gsub!(/\{b\}(.*?)\{\/b\}/, '<b>\1</b>')


at the moment the .* is being too greedy when it's matching, causing it 
to match
Text{/b} kokoko {b}Lalal
Using .*? switches off the greedy matching so it only matches up to the 
first {/b}

HTH

--
Mark Sparshatt