If this solves the problem for you, all the power to you. There is nothing wrong to parse XML (or HTML) with regexes. However, if you get problems and come here (or elsewhere) for help, and explain you are parsing XML with regexes, expect to get flak. First, we can't sniff that your files are special and that you exactly know how the XML looks like. Furthermore, if you make the choice for regexes instead of parser, and are hence reinventing, possibly badly, the wheel, you shouldn't burden forums like this with your problems.

Abigail