How to end regex on first search

Question

I have the following string:

<center>DB Results:</center><center><b><br>ripster.ultima</b></center><center><b><br>raghav.jhavar</b></center></center></td></tr></table>

I want to extract "ripster.ultima" and "raghav.jhavar", so I used the following regex:

(?<=<center><b><br>)(.*)(?=<\/b><\/center>)

Now, this works in some cases, but not in all: https://regex101.com/r/imO8A8/4

In the link above, the first example is a single line. When I put in a single line, it does not select the individual strings. However, if its separated by a new line as seen in the second example, the strings I want are highlighted.

How do I get the strings in the first example?

Trying to parse HTML with regex is generally not a good idea. Consider using an XML parser instead. — Tim Biegeleisen, Feb 17 '19 at 13:56
I just need to get 1 part of the html body, not sure if I want to use an external library for such a small purpose. — RaghavJhavar, Feb 17 '19 at 14:03
The data you want to match seems to always be in the same format (xxxx.xxxx), maybe you could match that format instead of the HTML. — Callum Watkins, Feb 17 '19 at 14:49

Daniel Butler · Accepted Answer · 2019-02-17T14:20:06.590

-1

You don’t need to group the first and the last patterns

<center><b><br>(.*?)<\/b><\/center>

edited Feb 17 '19 at 14:20

answered Feb 17 '19 at 14:07

Daniel Butler

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This gives me a pattern error. `? The preceding token is not quantifiable` – RaghavJhavar Feb 17 '19 at 14:16
Just updated it. Html can be really messy so it is best to use an xml parser if you need to parse anything beyond this use case – Daniel Butler Feb 17 '19 at 14:22
This is pretty much my only use case. Not sure who is down voting, and why they are without specifying any reason. – RaghavJhavar Feb 17 '19 at 14:32

How to end regex on first search

1 Answers1