Bug? Match Regular Expression

[Yamaeda]

Match regular expression:

Why do this work: "<y:NodeLabel.*?>(.*?)<" on this text "<y:NodeLabel fontStyle="bold">MyG#SubClass</y:NodeLabel>"

but this: "<y:AttributeLabel.*?>(.*?)<" doesn't work on this

"<y:AttributeLabel xml:space="preserve">- AttrQueueLock:QUEUE REFNUM
- Ref:U32
- Timeout:BOOL
</y:AttributeLabel>"

Have i found a bug of am i missing something about RegExps?

(I solved the 2nd with "<y:AttributeLabel.*?>([^<]*)<", but why can't i use the same logic?)

[JePe1 · Accepted solution]

A "." doesn't match line breaks by default. You can add a dotall "(?s)" modifier to change this.

"(?s)<y:AttributeLabel.*?>(.*?)<"

Matches:

"<y:AttributeLabel xml:space="preserve">- AttrQueueLock:QUEUE REFNUM
- Ref:U32
- Timeout:BOOL
<"

[raphschru · Accepted solution]

Because "." matches any character except for line terminators.

"[^<]" matches any character except "<".

[thols]

I recommend https://regex101.com to test regex. I would recommend AI to explain this kind of regex questions, but I hate AI (and use it anyway, but wash my mouth afterwards)

[Yamaeda]

Thanks! I thought '.' matched _all_ characters. 🙂