GREP - Matching everything between two delimiters

[dp]

I need to find and replace everything between and including the
delimiters
<!-- Begin value list -->
and
<!-- End value list -->
The text to be replaced includes returns. Early attempts with (.*)
found only the opening delimiter and the next line, stopped by the
return at the end of the second line. Attempts to get past the returns
using (?s).+ ignore the closing delimiter and swallow the remainder of
the document. Any help would be appreciated.

[Ronald J Kimball]

Use .*? instead of .* for non-greedy matching.

Ronald

[dp]

On Oct 20, 1:33 pm, Ronald J Kimball <r...@tamias.net> wrote:

> Use .*? instead of .* for non-greedy matching.

Thanks, Ronald. Unfortunately, all that results is a system beep.
Here's what I've got. Have I misunderstood you?
(<!-- Begin value list -->)(.*?)(<!-- End value list -->)

[John Delacour]

If you are doing your substitutions line by line then a text filter
like this will do it:

#! /usr/bin/perl
use strict;
my $on;
while (<>) {
$on = 1 and print and next if /<!-- Begin value list -->/;
$on = 0 if /<!-- End value list -->/;
if ($on) { # actions when switched on
s/.+/*****$&*****/;
}
print;
}
__END__

If you need to cross over line endings then the solution is a little different.

JD

[Ronald J Kimball]

You still need (?s) to allow . to match newlines.

Ronald

[dp]

Both my needs and my knowledge are much simpler. The value list master
is kept in a single file. The value list is used in six places in
other files. The delimiters bracket each place where it is used. When
the value list changes, I change the master, copy the master, and
replace each instance in the other files. I can drop the master into
the Replace field of the Find/Replace window. I'm just trying to
develop a search string that will allow me to find the delimiters and
everything in between, so that I can replace all instances at once,
rather than individually.

[dp]

I'm not following. Still nothing but a beep.

[Ronald J Kimball]

Try this:

(?s)(<!-- Begin value list -->)(.*?)(<!-- End value list -->)

Ronald

[dp]

That got it! Thank you, Ronald.