Regex for multi line search that should select text "abc" which comes before the text "xyz" and should not select anything except "abc"

Question

suppose if the text is as below,

    aaaabbbb
    abc
     abc
 lmn xyz

the regex should match only the text abc in 3rd line just above last line

Aha, you want to match the shortest window between the value you need and some text after it. You need to use a tempered greedy token. [This answer of mine](http://stackoverflow.com/a/40556433/3832970) (for an ICU regex flavor that is similar to PCRE) can throw some light on how this is done. Please try on your own based on that, and come back if you fail to get the result you need. — Wiktor Stribiżew, Dec 08 '16 at 10:27

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 08 '16 at 10:46

0

Could you please try the following:

/.*(abc).*xyz/s

Please note the s option which makes this work across multiple lines by just using .* to skip both regular characters and new lines

answered Dec 08 '16 at 10:46

Miro

No, this regex is selecting all text – adarsha bv Dec 08 '16 at 10:56
No, this regex is matching the entire text, but the text abc you require appears in the first matching group from where you should retrieve the result. – Miro Dec 08 '16 at 11:00
i want this to happen in one regex – adarsha bv Dec 08 '16 at 12:50

1 Answers1