From: Alex Gutteridge <alexg@...>
Date: 2007-08-05T17:52:43+09:00
Subject: Re: sgub stretching over several lines

On 5 Aug 2007, at 16:41, Shai Rosenfeld wrote:

> Jan Ask wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I am trying to do a in a replace a long (multiple line) string:
>>
>> string = string.gsub(/&lt;h3
>> class=&quot;field-label>audience&lt;\/h3&gt;
>>   &lt;div class=&quot;field-items>
>>           &lt;div class=&quot;field-item>/, '</audience>')
>>
>> It somehow doesn't seem to work.
>>
>> I would like to know how to use a wildcard like '*', '%' or '...'  
>> like
>> below:
>>
>> string = string.gsub(/&lt;h ... tem>/, '</audience>')
>>
>> Thanks!
>> Ask
>
>> string = string.gsub(/&lt;h.*tem>/, '</audience>')
>
> .*
>
> # the . regexp wildcard means, 'any' character (space, symbol, letter)
> # the * regexp wildcard is an operator saying: any regexp match before
> me can appear 0 or more times:
>
> i.e, you get whatever character you want, however many times you want
> it, between the '&lt;h' string and the 'tem>' string.
> hth
>
> happy sunday btw
> -- 
> Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
>

.* won't match over multiple lines without the m modifier on the  
RegExp, which I think is the OP's problem:

irb(main):021:0> string = "Hi\nJan\nAsk"
=> "Hi\nJan\nAsk"
irb(main):022:0> string.gsub(/Hi.*Ask/,'Hi Jane Ask')
=> "Hi\nJan\nAsk"
irb(main):023:0> string.gsub(/Hi.*Ask/m,'Hi Jane Ask')
=> "Hi Jane Ask"

Alex Gutteridge

Bioinformatics Center
Kyoto University