How do I match any character across multiple lines

Question

For example, this regex

(.*)<FooBar>

will match:

abcde<FooBar>

But how do I get it to match across multiple lines?

abcde
fghij<FooBar>

Answer 1

Often we have to modify a substring with a few keywords spread across lines preceding the substring. Consider an xml element:

<TASK>
  <UID>21</UID>
  <Name>Architectural design</Name>
  <PercentComplete>81</PercentComplete>
</TASK>

Suppose we want to modify the 81, to some other value, say 40. First identify .UID.21..UID., then skip all characters including \n till .PercentCompleted.. The regular expression pattern and the replace specification are:

String hw = new String("<TASK>\n  <UID>21</UID>\n  <Name>Architectural design</Name>\n  <PercentComplete>81</PercentComplete>\n</TASK>");
String pattern = new String ("(<UID>21</UID>)((.|\n)*?)(<PercentComplete>)(\\d+)(</PercentComplete>)");
String replaceSpec = new String ("$1$2$440$6");
//note that the group (<PercentComplete>) is $4 and the group ((.|\n)*?) is $2.

String  iw = hw.replaceFirst(pattern, replaceSpec);
System.out.println(iw);

<TASK>
  <UID>21</UID>
  <Name>Architectural design</Name>
  <PercentComplete>40</PercentComplete>
</TASK>

The subgroup (.|\n) is probably the missing group $3. If we make it non-capturing by (?:.|\n) then the $3 is (<PercentComplete>). So the pattern and replaceSpec can also be:

pattern = new String("(<UID>21</UID>)((?:.|\n)*?)(<PercentComplete>)(\\d+)(</PercentComplete>)");
replaceSpec = new String("$1$2$340$5")

and the replacement works correctly as before.

Answer 2

([\s\S]*)<FooBar>

The dot matches all except newlines (\r\n). So use \s\S, which will match ALL characters.