Question

Am trying to replace content with empty using this regular expression.

objRegExp.Pattern = "<(?>/?)(?!(p|strong)(>|\s))[^<]+?>"
sHtml = objRegExp.Replace(sHtml, "")

If I test this <(?>/?)(?!(p|strong)(>|\s))[^<]+?> regex on gskinner, it is working fine. But when I place this on Classic ASP page, it is not working.

When I debug error is shown as

Syntax error in regular expression

INPUT:

<h2>Regex testing</h2><br/><p>P Test</p><div>Div Test</div><strong>Strong Test</strong>

EXPECTED OUTPUT:

Regex testing<p>P Test</p>Div Test<strong>Strong Test</strong>

Please suggest, What’s gone wrong here?

Answer 1

VBScript does not support atomic groups (the (?>/?) construct at the start).

See here the feature overview on regular-expression.info. VBScript is using the ECMA flavour.

Remove the atomic group and replace the check for the leading slash

objRegExp.Pattern = "<(?!/?(p|strong))[^<]+?>"

This seems to do the job. See it here on Regexr

Update

OK, I removed too much if you put back (>|\s) its working

<(?!/?(p|strong)(>|\s))[^<]+?>

Regexr