Regexp magic needed, truncate incomplete XML

starbuck has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hi,

I've been chasing my tail for way to long on this one.

I basically have an XML document and want to remove the last incomplete tag so that I am left with the first two complete XML lines.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?><TransactionPart Sub='PRFN
+' Part='1' Id='ALAABADOCKAGDI'><Event Row='1' File='RELATIONSHIP_FILE
+' ISN='23290' Time='2005/11/11-17:05:39' Op='Update'></TransactionPar
+t>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?><TransactionPart Sub='PRF'
+ Part='1' Id='AABADOCKAGDI'><Event Row='1' File='RELATIONSHIP_FILE' I
+SN='2180' Time='2005/11/11-17:05:39' Op='Update'></TransactionPart>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?><TransactionPart Sub='PRFN
+' Part='1' Id='AABADOCKAGDI'><Event Row='1' File='PRODUCT_RELATIONSHI
+P_FILE' ISN='1
[download]

I have tried pattern matching the last end tag and have managed to extract the last fragment:

my $terminator = "<\/notification>|<\/TransactionPart>";

$msg_payload =~ /($terminator?([^$terminator]*))$/;

$truncate = $';
[download]

But the prematch doesn't give me the rest of the document, which is what I want.

So I tried to pattern match $truncate in the original string in the hopes of pulling out everything before it but that was sadly not to be for some unknown reason.

So what regexp magic can I use to extract the complete first n complete xml elements?

Many Thanks,
Starbuck

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Re: Regexp magic needed, truncate incomplete XML by Roy Johnson (Monsignor) on Nov 18, 2005 at 19:41 UTC
For this example, assuming you've got all three lines stored as one string in `$_`: `s/^.[^>]$//gm;` [download] That will delete any lines that don't end in a `>`. It will leave the newline from those lines, though. Season to taste. Caution:* Contents may have been coded under pressure.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Regexp magic needed, truncate incomplete XML by Anonymous Monk on Nov 24, 2005 at 09:02 UTC
Great, just the trick I was looking for. I got too caught up in it being the last record that I didn't think to replace incomplete lines. Thanks.	[reply]