Java: String.replace(regex, string) to remove content from XML

Question

Lets say I have an XML in the form of a string. I wish to remove the content between two tags within the XML String, say . I have tried:

String newString = oldString.replaceFirst("\\<tagName>.*?\\<//tagName>",
                                                              "Content Removed");

but it does not work. Any pointers as to what am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

OK, apart from the obvious answer (don't parse XML with regex), maybe we can fix this:

String newString = oldString.replaceFirst("(?s)<tagName[^>]*>.*?</tagName>",
                                          "Content Removed");

Explanation:

(?s)             # turn single-line mode on (otherwise '.' won't match '\n')
<tagName         # remove unnecessary (and perhaps erroneous) escapes
[^>]*            # allow optional attributes
>.*?</tagName>   

Are you sure your matching the tag case correctly? Perhaps you also want to add the i flag to the pattern: (?si)