CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phpregex
EasyBB
EasyBB

Reputation: 6554

Regex Match and Nested Elements

I have this regex code:

 <!--\s?BEGIN (\w+) \s?-->(.*?)<!--\s?END \w+\s?-->

Which will match

<!-- BEGIN some_functional_name -->
     //some stuff here later
<!-- BEGIN some_functional_name -->

What I need is to watch out for nested comments and if the names are the same. For example

<!-- BEGIN some_functional_name -->
     //some stuff here later
     <!-- BEGIN another_functional_name -->
          //it'll match up to the below end another_functional_name
     <!-- END another_functional_name -->
<!-- END some_functional_name -->

As you can see it's nested but the regex will capture the second to last END comment which the BEGIN and END do not match. Is there a method to get inline regex capture groups?

Example:

 <!--\s?BEGIN (\w+) \s?-->(.*?)<!--\s?END $1\s?-->

Though I'm also clueless on how to handle nesting? Should I use a positive lookaround or what?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 61

Answers (1)

Wiktor Stribiżew
Wiktor Stribiżew

Reputation: 626845

You should use a backreference, e.g. '\1'.

    <!--\s?BEGIN (\w+) \s?-->(.*?)<!--\s?END \1\s?-->

Here is an example.

Upvotes: 1

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