Although tybalt89 probably can think of some ways, my answer would be: No

I am sure that tybalt89 and other wizards in The Monastery could contrive something that would have the same functionality...that's why I added "sensibly" to my question!

Thanks for clarifying - I thought that was the case but I am far from being a regexp wizard so I wanted to check. Now I need to go and look up the /n modifier as that is new to me. I need to look up others as well as the only ones I ever use are /igc I think although I feel there is at least one more I use occasionally!