Find correct string in string

Question

i have string:

<em>hhhhhhhhhhhhh gggggggggggg hhhhhhhhhhh</em> <strong>hhhhhhhhhh hhhhhhhhh hhhhhhhhh</strong> gggggggggg ggggggg hhhhhhhhhhh ggggggggggggggggggggggggg <em>ggggggg ggggggg <strong>gggggggg dddddddddd</strong></em>

And now i wont find :

var regex = /<em>(.*?)<\/strong><\/em>/g;
var spr = string.match(regexxx);
alert(spr.toString());

This prints my full string.

<em>hhhhhhhhhhhhh gggggggggggg hhhhhhhhhhh</em> <strong>hhhhhhhhhh hhhhhhhhh hhhhhhhhh</strong> gggggggggg ggggggg hhhhhhhhhhh ggggggggggggggggggggggggg <em>ggggggg ggggggg <strong>gggggggg dddddddddd</strong></em>

And sure this is good. But this is not what i want! I want this:

<em>ggggggg ggggggg <strong>gggggggg dddddddddd</strong></em>

Regex must find everything between:

<em>...</strong></em>

but not if between

<em>..**</em>**.</strong></em> .

This is not correct:

<em>testestest</em>test test</strong></em>

This is good:

<em>test<strong>test test</strong></em>

What regular expression do I use to do this?

[Obligatory](http://stackoverflow.com/a/1732454/1223693) – tckmn May 27 '13 at 13:21 — tckmn, May 27 '13 at 13:21

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered May 27 '13 at 13:37

I fixed your regex. If you want to access what is inside the <em> and <strong> elements just add () around the [^<] section of the regex.

var regex = /<em>[^<]*?<strong>[^<]*?<\/strong><\/em>/g;
var result = regex.exec(s)
console.log(result[0]);

This print :

<em>ggggggg ggggggg <strong>gggggggg dddddddddd</strong></em>

Find correct string in string

1 Answers1