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From: Richard Owlett <rowlett@access.net>
Newsgroups: comp.editors
Subject: Re: Automating an atypical search & replace
Date: Sun, 14 Jul 2024 02:51:45 -0500
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On 07/14/2024 01:13 AM, Stan Brown wrote:
> AOn Sat, 13 Jul 2024 23:39:14 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
>> On Sat, 13 Jul 2024 11:08:48 -0500, Richard Owlett wrote:
>>
>>> These occurrences are consistently of the form
>>>      <span class='add'>arbitrary_text</span>
>>>
>>> I wish to delete "<span class='add'>" and *ASSOCIATED* "</span>".
>>
>> This is beyond the abilities of regular expressions. This is the point
>> where you need to use an actual HTML/XML-parsing library.
>>
> 
> In general I'd agree with you. But the OP made a big deal -- in a
> different thread, for some reason -- about wanting to use minimal
> HTML, so I doubt very much there will be nested <span> ... </span>
> sequences.

I'd compare using a minimal HTML to learning to crawl before pursuing 
running a marathon ;}

> 
> Also, the OP quite rightly wanted to confirm each change before it is
> made, so presumably if there are any nested sequences he will say no
> to that particular edit and fix it manually.
>