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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-23T03:10:41+00:00

Here’s the input String: <div class=matchthis>Orange</div> <div class=dontmatch>One</div> <div class=matchthis id=hurdle>Lemon</div> <div class=dontmatch>Two</div> <div

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Here’s the input String:

<div class="matchthis">Orange</div>
<div class="dontmatch">One</div>
<div class="matchthis" id="hurdle">Lemon</div>
<div class="dontmatch">Two</div>
<div id="hurdle" class="matchthis">Peach</div>

I want to output below (all <div> tags containing class="matchthis"):

<div class="matchthis">Orange</div>
<div class="matchthis" id="hurdle">Lemon</div>
<div id="hurdle" class="matchthis">Peach</div>

This Java RegEx <div class=\"matchthis\">(.*?)(?=</div>) will only output the following:

<div class="matchthis">Orange</div>

Please help improve the RegEx to get the desired output.

Please do not tell me to use slower DOM/Soup/etc. I wonder if raw regex can solve the simple problem above (you’ll be awarded for the answer!). Yes I’m aware of this post so don’t even mention it.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team
    Pattern.compile(
   "<div class=\"matchthis\"(?:[^>\"']|\"[^\"]*\"|'[^']*')*>(.*?)(?=</div>)",
   Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE | Pattern.DOTALL)

    To break it down,

     (?:[^>\"']|\"[^\"]*\"|'[^']*')*

    matches any number of the below due to the

     (?: ... )*

    of non-quote non-tag closers due to

    [^>\"']

    or double quoted attribute values

    \"[^\"]*\"

    or single quoted attribute values

    '[^']*'

    The Pattern.DOTALL means that your .*? will allow newlines in the div body.

    The Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE causes it to handle case folding of HTML element names properly, though if your default locale is Turkish you might get some weirdness around <DİV> (note the dotted I).

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