It is very difficult to parse HTML using regular expressions. You will be better off using a module that understands HTML better than regexen. I usually use HTML::TreeBuilder.

It is very difficult to parse XML using regular expressions. You will be better off using a module that understands XML better than regexen. I usually use XML::Simple.

use XML::Simple;

my $str = "<story>
                <page>
                        <description> desc </description>
                        <image> notExpected.jpg </image>
                        <headline> head </headline>
                </page>
        </story>
        <image>correctImage.jpg</image>";

my $xml = XMLin( "<wrapper>$str</wrapper>" );

my $image = $xml->{image};
print "$_\n" for ref( $image ) ? @{$image} : $image;

[download]

Notice that XML must within a single tag. Hence the addition of <wrapper>...<wrapper>

You're not using [...] character classes correctly.

See perlre, perlretut for more details.

edit: I guess I wasn't properly awake. I didn't notice it was XML rather than HTML.
edit^2: Added code

In reply to Re: REGEX issue by FunkyMonk
in thread REGEX issue by siva kumar

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
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