Regex Non-Greedy (Lazy)

Question

I'm attempting to non-greedily parse out TD tags. I'm starting with something like this:

<TD>stuff<TD align="right">More stuff<TD align="right>Other stuff<TD>things<TD>more things

I'm using the below as my regex:

Regex.Split(tempS, @"\<TD[.\s]*?\>");

The records return as below:

""
"stuff<TD align="right">More stuff<TD align="right>Other stuff"
"things"
"more things"

Why is it not splitting that first full result (the one starting with "stuff")? How can I adjust the regex to split on all instances of the TD tag with or without parameters?

Answer 1

For non greedy match, try this <TD.*?>

Answer 2

The regex you want is <TD[^>]*>:

<     # Match opening tag
TD    # Followed by TD
[^>]* # Followed by anything not a > (zero or more)
>     # Closing tag

Note: . matches anything (including whitespace) so [.\s]*? is redundant and wrong as [.] matches a literal . so use .*?.

Answer 3

From https://regex101.com/

• * Quantifier — Matches between zero and unlimited times, as many times as possible, giving back as needed (greedy)
• *? Quantifier — Matches between zero and unlimited times, as few times as possible, expanding as needed (lazy)