Regex match open tags except xhtml self contained tags
A nice regex challenge!
To match open tags (i.e., tags that don't have a corresponding closing tag) in HTML, except for self-contained XHTML tags (e.g., <img src="...">, <br>, etc.), you can use the following regex pattern:
<[^/][^>]+>Here's a breakdown of the pattern:
<: Match the opening angle bracket.[^/]: Match any character that is not a forward slash (/). This ensures we don't match self-contained tags.[^>]+: Match one or more characters that are not a greater-than sign (>). This ensures we match the entire tag name and any attributes.
This pattern will match open tags like <p>, <div>, <span>, etc., but not self-contained tags like <img src="...">, <br>, etc.
Here are some examples to demonstrate the pattern's behavior:
- Matches:
<p>,<div>,<span>,<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="..."> - Doesn't match:
<img src="...">,<br>,<hr>, etc.
Note that this pattern does not account for tags with attributes that contain forward slashes (e.g., <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://example.com">). If you need to match those as well, you can modify the pattern to:
<[^/][^>]+(?: [^>]+)*>This pattern uses a non-capturing group (?: [^>]+)* to match zero or more occurrences of a space followed by one or more characters that are not a greater-than sign (>). This allows the pattern to match tags with attributes that contain forward slashes.