in reply to Re: can I make my regex match first pattern instead of last?
in thread can I make my regex match first pattern instead of last?

That doesn't do it either. It's matching more than just one single ELEMENT block. Here's the output when I put in your suggestion (although I think I changed a catalog number in the data since my original post):

Here's the result: ***** Found Kurt (Item := "BrightLite", ItemID := 29, CatalogNumber := "BTLT-9274", Vendor := 100, END_ELEMENT ***** Found Mick (Item := "PetRock", ItemID := 36, CatalogNumber := "PTRK-3475/A", Vendor := 82, END_ELEMENT ELEMENT Kurt's SMKY-1978 SeaMonkeys. (counter: 0) ***** ELEMENT Kurt (Item := "Battleship", ItemID := 99, CatalogNumber := "BTLS-5234", Vendor := 529, END_ELEMENT ELEMENT Mick's SMKY-1978 SeaMonkeys. (counter: 1) ***** ELEMENT Frank (Item := "PetRock", ItemID := 42, CatalogNumber := "PTRK-3475/B", Vendor := 82, END_ELEMENT ELEMENT Joe (Item := "SeaMonkeys", ItemID := 8, CatalogNumber := "SMKY-1978/A", Vendor := 77, END_ELEMENT