How do I match any character across multiple lines in a regular expression?

Question

For example, this regex

(.*)<FooBar>

will match:

abcde<FooBar>

But how do I get it to match across multiple lines?

abcde
fghij<FooBar>

Answer 1

Try this:

((.|\n)*)<FooBar>

It basically says "any character or a newline" repeated zero or more times.

Answer 2

It depends on the language, but there should be a modifier that you can add to the regex pattern. In PHP it is:

/(.*)<FooBar>/s

The s at the end causes the dot to match all characters including newlines.

Answer 3

The question is, can the . pattern match any character? The answer varies from engine to engine. The main difference is whether the pattern is used by a POSIX or non-POSIX regex library.

A special note about lua-patterns: they are not considered regular expressions, but . matches any character there, the same as POSIX-based engines.

Another note on matlab and octave: the . matches any character by default (demo): str = "abcde\n fghij<Foobar>"; expression = '(.*)<Foobar>*'; [tokens,matches] = regexp(str,expression,'tokens','match'); (tokens contain a abcde\n fghij item).

Also, in all of boost's regex grammars the dot matches line breaks by default. Boost's ECMAScript grammar allows you to turn this off with regex_constants::no_mod_m (source).

As for oracle (it is POSIX based), use the n option (demo): select regexp_substr('abcde' || chr(10) ||' fghij<Foobar>', '(.*)<Foobar>', 1, 1, 'n', 1) as results from dual

POSIX-based engines:

A mere . already matches line breaks, so there isn't a need to use any modifiers, see bash (demo).

The tcl (demo), postgresql (demo), r (TRE, base R default engine with no perl=TRUE, for base R with perl=TRUE or for stringr/stringi patterns, use the (?s) inline modifier) (demo) also treat . the same way.

However, most POSIX-based tools process input line by line. Hence, . does not match the line breaks just because they are not in scope. Here are some examples how to override this:

• sed - There are multiple workarounds. The most precise, but not very safe, is sed 'H;1h;$!d;x; s/\(.*\)><Foobar>/\1/' (H;1h;$!d;x; slurps the file into memory). If whole lines must be included, sed '/start_pattern/,/end_pattern/d' file (removing from start will end with matched lines included) or sed '/start_pattern/,/end_pattern/{{//!d;};}' file (with matching lines excluded) can be considered.
• perl - perl -0pe 's/(.*)<FooBar>/$1/gs' <<< "$str" (-0 slurps the whole file into memory, -p prints the file after applying the script given by -e). Note that using -000pe will slurp the file and activate 'paragraph mode' where Perl uses consecutive newlines (\n\n) as the record separator.
• gnu-grep - grep -Poz '(?si)abc\K.*?(?=<Foobar>)' file. Here, z enables file slurping, (?s) enables the DOTALL mode for the . pattern, (?i) enables case insensitive mode, \K omits the text matched so far, *? is a lazy quantifier, (?=<Foobar>) matches the location before <Foobar>.
• pcregrep - pcregrep -Mi "(?si)abc\K.*?(?=<Foobar>)" file (M enables file slurping here). Note pcregrep is a good solution for macOS grep users.

See demos.

Non-POSIX-based engines:

• php - Use the s modifier PCRE_DOTALL modifier: preg_match('~(.*)<Foobar>~s', $s, $m) (demo)
• c# - Use RegexOptions.Singleline flag (demo):
  - var result = Regex.Match(s, @"(.*)<Foobar>", RegexOptions.Singleline).Groups[1].Value;
  - var result = Regex.Match(s, @"(?s)(.*)<Foobar>").Groups[1].Value;
• powershell - Use the (?s) inline option: $s = "abcde`nfghij<FooBar>"; $s -match "(?s)(.*)<Foobar>"; $matches[1]
• perl - Use the s modifier (or (?s) inline version at the start) (demo): /(.*)<FooBar>/s
• python - Use the re.DOTALL (or re.S) flags or (?s) inline modifier (demo): m = re.search(r"(.*)<FooBar>", s, flags=re.S) (and then if m:, print(m.group(1)))
• java - Use Pattern.DOTALL modifier (or inline (?s) flag) (demo): Pattern.compile("(.*)<FooBar>", Pattern.DOTALL)
• kotlin - Use RegexOption.DOT_MATCHES_ALL : "(.*)<FooBar>".toRegex(RegexOption.DOT_MATCHES_ALL)
• groovy - Use (?s) in-pattern modifier (demo): regex = /(?s)(.*)<FooBar>/
• scala - Use (?s) modifier (demo): "(?s)(.*)<Foobar>".r.findAllIn("abcde\n fghij<Foobar>").matchData foreach { m => println(m.group(1)) }
• javascript - Use the s (dotAll) flag or workarounds [^] / [\d\D] / [\w\W] / [\s\S] (demo): s.match(/([\s\S]*)<FooBar>/)[1]
• c++ (std::regex) Use [\s\S] or the JavaScript workarounds (demo): regex rex(R"(([\s\S]*)<FooBar>)");
• vba vbscript - Use the same approach as in JavaScript, ([\s\S]*)<Foobar>. (NOTE: The MultiLine property of the RegExp object is sometimes erroneously thought to be the option to allow . match across line breaks, while, in fact, it only changes the ^ and $ behavior to match start/end of lines rather than strings, the same as in JavaScript regex)
• ruby - Use the /m MULTILINE modifier (demo): s[/(.*)<Foobar>/m, 1]
• rtrebase-r - Base R PCRE regexps - use (?s): regmatches(x, regexec("(?s)(.*)<FooBar>",x, perl=TRUE))[[1]][2] (demo)
• ricustringrstringi - in stringr/stringi regex funtions that are powered with the ICU regex engine. Also use (?s): stringr::str_match(x, "(?s)(.*)<FooBar>")[,2] (demo)
• go - Use the inline modifier (?s) at the start (demo): re: = regexp.MustCompile(`(?s)(.*)<FooBar>`)
• swift - Use dotMatchesLineSeparators or (easier) pass the (?s) inline modifier to the pattern: let rx = "(?s)(.*)<Foobar>"
• objective-c - The same as Swift. (?s) works the easiest, but here is how the option can be used: NSRegularExpression* regex = [NSRegularExpression regularExpressionWithPattern:pattern options:NSRegularExpressionDotMatchesLineSeparators error:&regexError];
• re2, google-apps-script - Use the (?s) modifier (demo): "(?s)(.*)<Foobar>" (in Google Spreadsheets, =REGEXEXTRACT(A2,"(?s)(.*)<Foobar>"))

NOTES ON (?s):

In most non-POSIX engines, the (?s) inline modifier (or embedded flag option) can be used to enforce . to match line breaks.

If placed at the start of the pattern, (?s) changes the bahavior of all . in the pattern. If the (?s) is placed somewhere after the beginning, only those .s will be affected that are located to the right of it unless this is a pattern passed to Python's re. In Python re, regardless of the (?s) location, the whole pattern . is affected. The (?s) effect is stopped using (?-s). A modified group can be used to only affect a specified range of a regex pattern (e.g., Delim1(?s:.*?)\nDelim2.* will make the first .*? match across newlines and the second .* will only match the rest of the line).

POSIX note:

In non-POSIX regex engines, to match any character, [\s\S] / [\d\D] / [\w\W] constructs can be used.

In POSIX, [\s\S] is not matching any character (as in JavaScript or any non-POSIX engine), because regex escape sequences are not supported inside bracket expressions. [\s\S] is parsed as bracket expressions that match a single character, \ or s or S.

Answer 4

If you're using Eclipse search, you can enable the "DOTALL" option to make '.' match any character including line delimiters: just add "(?s)" at the beginning of your search string. Example:

(?s).*<FooBar>

Answer 5

([\s\S]*)<FooBar>

The dot matches all except newlines (\r\n). So use \s\S, which will match ALL characters.

Answer 6

In many regex dialects, /[\S\s]*<Foobar>/ will do just what you want. Source

Answer 7

We can also use

(.*?\n)*?

to match everything including newline without being greedy.

This will make the new line optional

(.*?|\n)*?

Answer 8

In Ruby you can use the 'm' option (multiline):

/YOUR_REGEXP/m

See the Regexp documentation on ruby-doc.org for more information.

Answer 9

"." normally doesn't match line-breaks. Most regex engines allows you to add the S-flag (also called DOTALL and SINGLELINE) to make "." also match newlines. If that fails, you could do something like [\S\s].

Answer 10

For Eclipse, the following expression worked:

Foo

jadajada Bar"

Regular expression:

Foo[\S\s]{1,10}.*Bar*

Answer 11

Note that (.|\n)* can be less efficient than (for example) [\s\S]* (if your language's regexes support such escapes) and than finding how to specify the modifier that makes . also match newlines. Or you can go with POSIXy alternatives like [[:space:][:^space:]]*.

Answer 12

In notepad++ you can use this

<table (.|\r\n)*</table>

It will match the entire table starting from

rows and columns

You can make it greedy, using the following, that way it will match the first, second and so forth tables and not all at once

<table (.|\r\n)*?</table>

Answer 13

This works for me and is the simplest one:

(\X*)<FooBar>

Answer 14

Use:

/(.*)<FooBar>/s

The s causes dot (.) to match carriage returns.

Answer 15

Use RegexOptions.Singleline. It changes the meaning of . to include newlines.

Regex.Replace(content, searchText, replaceText, RegexOptions.Singleline);

Answer 16

In a Java-based regular expression, you can use [\s\S].

Answer 17

Generally, . doesn't match newlines, so try ((.|\n)*)<foobar>.

Answer 18

Solution:

Use pattern modifier sU will get the desired matching in PHP.

Example:

preg_match('/(.*)/sU', $content, $match);

Sources:

• Pattern Modifiers

Answer 19

In JavaScript you can use [^]* to search for zero to infinite characters, including line breaks.

$("#find_and_replace").click(function() {
  var text = $("#textarea").val();
  search_term = new RegExp("[^]*<Foobar>", "gi");;
  replace_term = "Replacement term";
  var new_text = text.replace(search_term, replace_term);
  $("#textarea").val(new_text);
});

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.3.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<button id="find_and_replace">Find and replace</button>
<br>
<textarea ID="textarea">abcde
fghij&lt;Foobar&gt;</textarea>

Answer 20

In the context of use within languages, regular expressions act on strings, not lines. So you should be able to use the regex normally, assuming that the input string has multiple lines.

In this case, the given regex will match the entire string, since "<FooBar>" is present. Depending on the specifics of the regex implementation, the $1 value (obtained from the "(.*)") will either be "fghij" or "abcde\nfghij". As others have said, some implementations allow you to control whether the "." will match the newline, giving you the choice.

Line-based regular expression use is usually for command line things like egrep.

Answer 21

Try: .*\n*.*<FooBar> assuming you are also allowing blank newlines. As you are allowing any character including nothing before <FooBar>.

Answer 22

I had the same problem and solved it in probably not the best way but it works. I replaced all line breaks before I did my real match:

mystring = Regex.Replace(mystring, "\r\n", "")

I am manipulating HTML so line breaks don't really matter to me in this case.

I tried all of the suggestions above with no luck. I am using .NET 3.5 FYI.

Answer 23

Often we have to modify a substring with a few keywords spread across lines preceding the substring. Consider an XML element:

<TASK>
  <UID>21</UID>
  <Name>Architectural design</Name>
  <PercentComplete>81</PercentComplete>
</TASK>

Suppose we want to modify the 81, to some other value, say 40. First identify .UID.21..UID., then skip all characters including \n till .PercentCompleted.. The regular expression pattern and the replace specification are:

String hw = new String("<TASK>\n  <UID>21</UID>\n  <Name>Architectural design</Name>\n  <PercentComplete>81</PercentComplete>\n</TASK>");
String pattern = new String ("(<UID>21</UID>)((.|\n)*?)(<PercentComplete>)(\\d+)(</PercentComplete>)");
String replaceSpec = new String ("$1$2$440$6");
// Note that the group (<PercentComplete>) is $4 and the group ((.|\n)*?) is $2.

String iw = hw.replaceFirst(pattern, replaceSpec);
System.out.println(iw);

<TASK>
  <UID>21</UID>
  <Name>Architectural design</Name>
  <PercentComplete>40</PercentComplete>
</TASK>

The subgroup (.|\n) is probably the missing group $3. If we make it non-capturing by (?:.|\n) then the $3 is (<PercentComplete>). So the pattern and replaceSpec can also be:

pattern = new String("(<UID>21</UID>)((?:.|\n)*?)(<PercentComplete>)(\\d+)(</PercentComplete>)");
replaceSpec = new String("$1$2$340$5")

and the replacement works correctly as before.

Answer 24

I wanted to match a particular if block in Java:

   ...
   ...
   if(isTrue){
       doAction();

   }
...
...
}

If I use the regExp

if \(isTrue(.|\n)*}

it included the closing brace for the method block, so I used

if \(!isTrue([^}.]|\n)*}

to exclude the closing brace from the wildcard match.

Answer 25

Typically searching for three consecutive lines in PowerShell, it would look like:

$file = Get-Content file.txt -raw

$pattern = 'lineone\r\nlinetwo\r\nlinethree\r\n'     # "Windows" text
$pattern = 'lineone\nlinetwo\nlinethree\n'           # "Unix" text
$pattern = 'lineone\r?\nlinetwo\r?\nlinethree\r?\n'  # Both

$file -match $pattern

# output
True

Bizarrely, this would be Unix text at the prompt, but Windows text in a file:

$pattern = 'lineone
linetwo
linethree
'

Here's a way to print out the line endings:

'lineone
linetwo
linethree
' -replace "`r",'\r' -replace "`n",'\n'

# Output
lineone\nlinetwo\nlinethree\n

Answer 26

Option 1

One way would be to use the s flag (just like the accepted answer):

/(.*)<FooBar>/s

Demo 1

Option 2

A second way would be to use the m (multiline) flag and any of the following patterns:

/([\s\S]*)<FooBar>/m

or

/([\d\D]*)<FooBar>/m

or

/([\w\W]*)<FooBar>/m

Demo 2

RegEx Circuit

jex.im visualizes regular expressions: