In addition to the other answers here which offer regular expressions and alternate line break characters which match over multiple lines, you may want to consider the use of the .. range operator:

#!/usr/bin/perl

while ( <DATA> ) {
   print if /<b>/ .. /<br>/;
}

__DATA__
a whole
lot of  worthless
stuff
<b>Title:
</b>
STRING_I_WANT<br>
more worthless
meaningless stuff
or sometimes
<b>Title:
</b>ANOTHER STRING_I_WANT<br>

[download]

And the resultant output ...

/users/rc6286 > perl test.perl
<b>Title:
</b>
STRING_I_WANT<br>
<b>Title:
</b>ANOTHER STRING_I_WANT<br>

[download]

Alternatively, if you are ensure that the match is made across multiple lines, and not merely against a single line which may contain the requisite start and stop range elements, the ... range operator may be used which does not test the second operand in the range statement until the next iteration, thereby ensuring that multiple lines are matched. See the perlop man page under the heading "Range Operators" for further details.

 

perl -le 'print+unpack"N",pack"B32","00000000000000000000001001100001"'

In reply to Re: Help with getting everything from X until Y by rob_au
in thread Help with getting everything from X until Y by Anonymous Monk

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