Hi monks

I need some clarifications in greediness.

The input file has the following text:

<pages>
<contentmodel>
<level>5</level>
<first>35</first>
<content>some text</content>
</contentmodel>
<contentmodel>
<level>4</level>
<first>45</first>
<content>some text</content>
</contentmodel>
<contentmodel>
<level>3</level>
<first>25</first>
<content>maps</content>
</contentmodel>
<contentmodel>
<level>2</level>
<first>15</first>
<content>some text</content>
</contentmodel>
</pages>

[download]

In the above input file i want to fetch the <first>\d+</first> tag in the content model in which the content tag has the text 'maps'.

I tried with the following code using zero width assertions. But it is not matching the minimum match. It is matching from the begining of the <first> tag.

(@arr) = $str =~ /(<first>((?!<first>).*?))<content>maps<\/content>/gsi;

I dont know where i am going wrong.

The output i need is:

<first>25</first>

Thanks in advance

Prasad

janitored by ybiC: Retitle from "greediness" because onewordnodetitles hinder site search

In reply to Clarification on greediness by prasadbabu

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