[Solved] Regexp to find only inner p tags inside the p tags

Question

If your regex flavor supports lookarounds, try something like this:

(?s)<p>(?:(?!</?p>).)*</p>(?=(?:(?!</?p>).|<p>(?:(?!</?p>).)*</p>)*?</p>)

This part (?:(?!</?p>).)* assures, that there’s no opening or closing <p within. The positive lookahead at the end (?=… checks for being inside </p. See demo for trying at regex101.

Generally regex is not the means for parsing html. What regex did you try and not work?

Accepted Answer

If your regex flavor supports lookarounds, try something like this:

(?s)<p>(?:(?!</?p>).)*</p>(?=(?:(?!</?p>).|<p>(?:(?!</?p>).)*</p>)*?</p>)

This part (?:(?!</?p>).)* assures, that there’s no opening or closing <p within. The positive lookahead at the end (?=… checks for being inside </p. See demo for trying at regex101.

Generally regex is not the means for parsing html. What regex did you try and not work?