question on none greedy reg expression

[jescat]

Hello,

I have an xml file all on one line. I would like to separate all tags on separte lines. I am having problems creating the proper regex to grab the shortest pattern. Here is my example file:

<a>who cares</a><b>not me</b>

my script:

gsub(/<\/(.*)?>/, "n")

outfile:

<a>who caresn

Conclusion:

The regex is grabbing the longest possible string rather than the shortest. I thought my syntax for non-greedy pattern matching was correct, but apparently not.

Any assistance would be appreciated.
Thanks

 

[jescat]

Sorry correction on script:

gsub( /<\/(.*)?>/, "&n")

 

[futurelet]

In awk, regular expressions are always greedy. Try this:

gsub( /<\/[^>]*>/, "&\n" )

[tt][^>][/tt] means any character except [tt]>[/tt].

 

[jescat]

Thanks alot, this worked. I thought non-greedy expression where supported. I've seen documentation about them, perhaps referring to regular expressions in general. Anyways thanks, appreciate it

 

[PHV]

And what about this ?
gsub(/>/,">\n")

Hope This Helps, PH.
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