From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Barry Margolin Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: regexp and strings you don't want Date: Mon, 25 Aug 2003 20:17:36 GMT Organization: Level(3) Communications, Woburn, MA Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Message-ID: References: <6c185cf3.0308251145.6af55ffc@posting.google.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: deer.gmane.org X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1061843718 16302 80.91.224.253 (25 Aug 2003 20:35:18 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 25 Aug 2003 20:35:18 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Mon Aug 25 22:35:17 2003 Return-path: Original-Received: from monty-python.gnu.org ([199.232.76.173]) by deer.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 19rO3Y-0002CB-00 for ; Mon, 25 Aug 2003 22:35:17 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.20) id 19rO3A-0003Fd-AU for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Mon, 25 Aug 2003 16:34:52 -0400 Original-Path: shelby.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!headwall.stanford.edu!newshub.sdsu.edu!elnk-nf2-pas!elnk-pas-nf1!newsfeed.earthlink.net!newsfeed2.easynews.com!newsfeed1.easynews.com!easynews.com!easynews!crtntx1-snh1.gtei.net!news.gtei.net!news.level3.com.POSTED!53ab2750!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Mail-Copies-To: never X-Newsreader: trn 4.0-test72 (19 April 1999) Originator: barmar@genuity.net (Barry Margolin) Original-Lines: 19 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 171.78.176.30 Original-X-Trace: news.level3.com 1061842656 171.78.176.30 (Mon, 25 Aug 2003 20:17:36 GMT) Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 25 Aug 2003 20:17:36 GMT Original-Xref: shelby.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:116136 Original-To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.2 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:12054 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.help:12054 In article <6c185cf3.0308251145.6af55ffc@posting.google.com>, Chaz wrote: >I know that ^ at the start of [ ] excludes individual characters (or >ranges of characters) from a regular expression search, but is there >an equivalent to eliminate strings? That is, how can I search for a >regular expression that does not include a specified string? > >For example, how can I search for a paragraph beginning with "The" >that does NOT include the word "top"? This is something that regexps by themselves are pretty bad at. What you should do is collect all the paragraphs that begin with "The", and then search each of them for "top", and discard those from the list. -- Barry Margolin, barry.margolin@level3.com Level(3), Woburn, MA *** DON'T SEND TECHNICAL QUESTIONS DIRECTLY TO ME, post them to newsgroups. Please DON'T copy followups to me -- I'll assume it wasn't posted to the group.