how to match everything else but whatever it's being matched with regex?

Question

i have something like

some text here
<<<<<a href="/test.php?path=new&amp;id=221" style>>>>="display:block;">
some more text here

i am trying to match everything but <<<<<a href="/test.php?path=new&amp;id=221" style>>>>

i was also thinking something simple like [^<<<<<(.+)>>>>] would do the trick, but it seems like (.+) is not being considered

any ideas?

Answer 1

The [ and ] mean you're defining a character class.

If those < and > are really there, then:

var str = str.replace(/<<<<<(.+?)>>>>/, '');

The .+? means "a non-greedy match for one or more characters" (if we left off the ?, it would be greedy, and so might match some of the > following it and make the expression not match).

That will replace the first place that text appears with nothing, leaving you with just what's before and after it.

If that text may appear in more than one place, add the global flag to the regex:

var str = str.replace(/<<<<<(.+?)>>>>/g, '');

Answer 2

There is a not operator if you want to match every line not having a certain pattern

^(?!<<<<<[^>]*>>>>)$

You will need the flag

RegexOptions.Multiline