Extract text with newline

Question

I am using this pattern

const string ptnBodytext = @"<p>\s*(.+?)\s*</p>";

in order to extract the text within the <p> tags. It works fine except for those text with newline, e.g.:

<p>
    Lorem ipsum
    second line or
    third one?
</p>

How can I change the pattern in order to include newline, tabs and so on?

If you are parsing HTML: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/56107/what-is-the-best-way-to-parse-html-in-c — Alex K., Aug 23 '16 at 11:32

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 23 '16 at 11:48

4

You either need to activate the dotall mode or:

const string ptnBodytext = @"<p>([\s\S]+?)</p>";

answered Aug 23 '16 at 11:48

Jan

1

`const string ptnBodytext = @"
(.+?)
";` and pass the `RegexOptions.Singleline` flag when building the regex object. – Wiktor Stribiżew Aug 23 '16 at 13:24

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 23 '16 at 11:32

2

Just remove the \s*:

const string ptnBodytext = @"<p>(.+?)</p>";

answered Aug 23 '16 at 11:32

Dmitry Egorov

2

[**Not** true](https://regex101.com/r/yG5hW3/1) without [`DOTALL`](https://regex101.com/r/yG5hW3/2) mode. Additionally, `\s*` matches *zero* or more whitespace characters. – Jan Aug 23 '16 at 11:47

2 Answers2