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RE: [OT] bugs in JDK regex engine ?

• From: "Michael Kay" <mike@s...>
• To: "'Mukul Gandhi'" <gandhi.mukul@g...>,<xml-dev@l...>
• Date: Mon, 4 Feb 2008 07:53:33 -0000

> Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("<[^/]+>"); 
> 
> I am expecting output:
> <root>
> <abc x='1'>
> <pqr y='1'>
> 
> But the output produced by the above program is:
> <root><abc x='1'>
> <pqr y='1'>
> 
> You could notice, that the 1st token is larger ...
> 
"+" is a greedy quantifier, it matches the longest string it can. To match
the shortest string, use [^/]+? or you could try [^/<]+

But as Amy points out, we're not helping you. We're just taking you one step
further to demonstrating what is already known as a theoretical result -
this problem can't be solved using regular expressions.

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: [OT] bugs in JDK regex engine ?
    • From: "Mukul Gandhi" <gandhi.mukul@g...>

• References:
  • [OT] bugs in JDK regex engine ?
    • From: "Mukul Gandhi" <gandhi.mukul@g...>
  • RE: [OT] bugs in JDK regex engine ?
    • From: "Michael Kay" <mike@s...>
  • Re: [OT] bugs in JDK regex engine ?
    • From: "Mukul Gandhi" <gandhi.mukul@g...>