Regular expression to get span tag [duplicate]

Question

May I know what is the regular expression rule for matching html tag

<span id="id1" class="class1" attribute="attribute1">Test</span>

that matches the tag SPAN regardless the property in it.

My existing rule is this, but not working.

/(<span [^>]*>)>/s

Answer 1

David, the reason (<span [^>]*>)> is that you have a small typo.

You see, that expression tries to match two closing >: look closely at the end >)>. For instance, it would match <span hey there>> but not <span hey there>

To match the opening span, make sure you only have one >.

With all the disclaimers about using regex to match html, this regex will do:

<span[^>]*>

If you sometimes expect SPAN, make sure to make it case-insensitive.

Only if you have time: an additional flourish

In a comment, @DavidEhrmann points out that the regex above will match <spanner>. If you want to make him happy and ensure that if the span is more than just <span> it always contains a space after span, you can use:

<span(?: [^>]*)?>

However, in my view, that is an unnecessary flourish. When we parse html with regex, we always know that we are using a crude tool, and we rely on the input to be fairly well-formed. For instance, with the revised regex above, there are still a million ways that we can match improper html, for instance: <span classification>

What to do? Nothing. Know your tools, know what they can do, know the risks, and decide when the situation warrants regex and when it warrants a DOM parser.

Answer 2

Take a look at here Regex for Html Tags

Try This

<span[^>]*>[\s\S]+<\/span>

Regex Demo

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O/ P:

Answer 3

/<span[^>]*>[^>]*<\/span>/