Well, basically what you have done is the same idea as what I did except that you have three regex evaluations when only two are needed - you can extract the start tag at the same time as the middle stuff and then put it back together using simple interpolation - which is what I did. Its a bit faster that way, but you should stick with whatever version you will understand three weeks from now.

As for the one liner - just put it all in a sub - either your version or mine or ikegami's which is even faster - and presto - a one liner. That is what subs are for.

Best, beth