Re: Multiline regex

[Valentin Baciu <valentin@syntactic.org>]

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Hello,

You are probably calling the `replace-regexp' interactively. Try to replace
the regexp with:
a\(.*
?\)*?*b

Otherwise, calling (replace-regexp "a\\(.*
?\\)*?*b", "") from code, in the buffer containing your text should work as
expected.

I think this is happening because how strings are being read and escaped.
In one case you need the \\ since you are calling the function from code
and the backslash has to be escaped. But, when called interactively (using
M-x) you are already passing an "escaped" backslash, so one is sufficient.

On Mon, Nov 21, 2011 at 3:56 PM, Giles Chamberlin <
giles.chamberlin@cisco.com> wrote:

> I'm having trouble with a multi line regex: can any one show me where
> I'm going wrong?
>
> I have a data file of the form:
>
> a
> 1
> b
>
> a
> 2
> b
>
> and wish to replace the "paragraphs" a..b.  Using re-builder (and based
> on http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/MultilineRegexp) I have constructed a
> successfully matching regex:
>
> "a\\(.*
> ?\\)*?*b"
>
> but when I try to use that regex in replace-regex I get 0 matches.  Any
> suggestions?
>
>
>
>
> --
> Giles
>
>
>

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