String regex with groups

Question

I try to use the String.replaceAll method for replacing a String like <br> with <br/>. Because <br> can be something more complicated like <br style="">, I need the same regex to work on both cases.

I tried something like:

String s = "<something><br><br style=\"\"></something>";
s = s.replaceAll("<br(.*)>", "<br$1/>");

but it doesn't seem like I am very successful.

Answer 1

Try using this expression:

s = s.replaceAll("<br(.*?)>", "<br$1/>");

Answer 2

Make the regex ungreedy:

s = s.replaceAll("<br(.*?)>", "<br$1/>");

or:

s = s.replaceAll("<br([^>]*)>", "<br$1/>");