href="http://www.amazon.com/Rails-Recipes/dp/0977616606/ref=pd_sim_b_njs_img_1">testPit > something here Best" > > > Pattern: > > .*?<\/td\s*> > > > I'm trying to match this whole block and use it for further parsing. > This started from an example in Brian Merick's book "Everyday > Scripting..." that had to be modified because amazon has changed their > presentation to tables instead of lists. > > Anyway, the regex works fine as a single-line. as soon as I introduce > this: > > "

href="http://www.amazon.com/Rails-Recipes/dp/0977616606/ref=pd_sim_b_njs_img_1">testPit > something here > > Best" > > it fails. > > When I try this same expression with perl using the //s mode, it works. > I understand Ruby uses //m (multi-line mode in nearly the same fashion > causing newlines to be considered any character, so it should work, > right? Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong here? Why isn't > "multiline" mode working? > > Thanks!



s = '

testPit
something here

Best'

puts "######\ns:"
puts s

r1 = /.*?<\/td.*?>/m
r2 = /(.*?)<\/td.*?>/m

puts "######\nscan with r1:"
puts s.scan(r1)
puts
puts "######\nmatch with r1:"
puts (s.match r1)[0]
puts

s =~ r1
puts "######\n=~ and $1 with r1:"
puts $1

puts
puts
puts

puts "######\nscan with r2:"
puts s.scan(r2)
puts
puts "######\nmatch with r2:"
puts (s.match r2)[0]
puts

s =~ r2
puts "######\n=~ and $1 with r2:"
puts $1

Hmm, I'm not sure if the regexp /]*>.*?<\/td[^>]*>/m would be more appropriate or not. Todd