Re: how can I make regexp expression effective across many lines

[Pascal Bourguignon <pjb@informatimago.com>]

         "Michael Chen" <vancouver.michael@gmail.com> writes:

> Hi, there, I have problem with newlines in regexp. Here is what I want
> to do: delete anything between <FORM> to TIP OF THE WEEK inclusively.
> There are many lines in between. Any regex I tried can not go through
> the newline. Any idea? Thanks.

Well, . matches anything but a newline. So you could build a regexp
matching anything including a newline as: "\\(.\\|\n\\)*"

Now, you want it shy, to find the first occurence of "TIP OF THE
WEEK", so use *? instead of *

"<FORM>\\(.\\|\n\\)*?TIP OF THE WEEK"



But in lisp code, it's easier to just search the start tag and then
search the end tag:

 (delete-region
     (if (search-forward "<FORM>")
        (match-beginning 0)
        (error "No <FORM>"))
     (if (search-forward "TIP OF THE WEEK")
        (match-end 0)
        (error "No TIP OF THE WEEK")))

no need for a regexp here...     
           

-- 
__Pascal Bourguignon__                     http://www.informatimago.com/

PLEASE NOTE: Some quantum physics theories suggest that when the
consumer is not directly observing this product, it may cease to
exist or will exist only in a vague and undetermined state.