Regex for any characters including new lines in Perl

Question

I need a regular expression like ([.\n]*) but that doesn't work. I have tried the s modifier also...

I want to get data from a table and the regular expression which is working in a few cases is:

~m/>(@ARGV)<\/.*\n(<td.*\n*.*\/td>\n){3}<td(.*\n*.*\n*)<\/td>/

I need to use the $3, but the number of newlines is not defined and I have no idea how could I solve this problem. Can someone please help me?

A `.` matches any character with an `/s` modifier. Not `[.\n]` that matches a dot and a line feed. — Wiktor Stribiżew, Mar 27 '16 at 16:00
Do not use regexp to parse HTML/XML. That way lies madness and extreme code brittleness. Use a real HTML/XML parser to extract the data you want. — Jim Garrison, Mar 27 '16 at 16:20
Thank you for the answers. One more question... I need to write code with a maximum length of 160 characters, do you think it is possible if I use a parser for extracting the data I need? — kata, Mar 27 '16 at 16:38
Please say more about what you're trying to do. Why are you limited to 160 characters? — Borodin, Mar 27 '16 at 16:51
Why can your code only be 160 characters? Is this code golf? — ThisSuitIsBlackNot, Mar 27 '16 at 16:51

Quinn · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-27T20:32:09.483

1

I did not find ~m and @ARGV in your test string. So, I made another pattern:

<td>((?:<span.*\n*){3})</td>

edited Mar 27 '16 at 20:32

answered Mar 27 '16 at 18:05

Quinn

Thanks, but the problem is that I don't know exactly the number of newlines, it can be 0 or more. I tried to write * and {0,} too instead of the {7} like you did. [here is the sample data](https://regex101.com/r/vH9tY4/3) – kata Mar 27 '16 at 18:41
Now the capturing group is in $1. Is that okay? – Quinn Mar 27 '16 at 20:33
I used a part of the original version and this one and it's okay now, thank you. – kata Mar 27 '16 at 20:43
I also made version 7 for unknown number of new lines. Please check if it helps – Quinn Mar 27 '16 at 20:46

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