# Regexp: str1-anything but str2-str2 =\> str1-str2

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/regexp-str1-anything-but-str2-str2-str1-str2/122514>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [December 8, 2007, 5:25pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/regexp-str1-anything-but-str2-str2-str1-str2/122514 "2007-12-08T17:25:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![wxwxwx](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/a9adbd/32.png) [@wxwxwx](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/wxwxwx)\
**Post date:** [December 8, 2007, 5:25pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/regexp-str1-anything-but-str2-str2-str1-str2/122514/1 "2007-12-08T17:25:51Z")

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A simple question about whether this can be done with regular  
expressions in Ruby:

str = \<\<EOS  
start

between1

between2

between3

between4

end  
EOS  
re = /what here?!/  
puts str.gsub(re, ‘----------------- zapped -------------------’)

Can re be written so the output is similar to:

start  
between1  
between2  
between3  
between4  
end

I tried the following, but no luck:  
re = / and replace anything in between, but regexps are  
just sweet, so I was still trying with them.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![wxwxwx](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/a9adbd/32.png) [@wxwxwx](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/wxwxwx)\
**Post date:** [December 8, 2007, 9:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/regexp-str1-anything-but-str2-str2-str1-str2/122514/2 "2007-12-08T21:01:21Z")

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On Dec 8, 10:21 am, wx [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> between1
> 
> between2  
> Any other simple way? The next thing I will do is find and replace anything in between, but regexps are  
> just sweet, so I was still trying with them.

A non-greedy regex (.\*? in this case) makes this pretty easy:

str.gsub(/.\*?\</script\>/m, ‘’).gsub(/\n+/, “\n”)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![wxwxwx](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/a9adbd/32.png) [@wxwxwx](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/wxwxwx)\
**Post date:** [December 8, 2007, 9:06pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/regexp-str1-anything-but-str2-str2-str1-str2/122514/3 "2007-12-08T21:06:38Z")

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yermej,

Thanks, that worked wonderfully!