Question

Objective

I want to match any digit, word character, or space 46 or more times before a < sign.

One note is that I’m trying to use this RegEx in Notepad++ before plugging it into the C# code.

Data

<Elem1>123 ABC Street</Elem1> // should NOT match
<Elem1>123637 ABC Street Suite 1, Kalamzoo, FL 15264-8574</Elem1>

RegEx

I currently have the following RegEx:

^.*<Elem1>[\d\w\s]{46,}?

and I can’t figure out why this [\d\w\s]{46,}? won’t match the inner portion of the element.

I look forward to your answers!

Answer 1

It doesn’t match because the input contains commas and hyphens, which are not part of any of the three character classes you include.

This would match:

^.*<Elem1>[\d\w\s,-]{46,}?

Additionally, it only makes sense to include the start of input anchor and then go on to say “oh, ignore any characters you find before an <Elem1>” if the regex runs in multiline mode. Otherwise, the same effect can be achieved with just

<Elem1>[\d\w\s,-]{46,}?