Regex: Cannot find a line that contain a string in one place, but it finds the line if the string is in other place on the same line

Question

I have this regex, it finds only the meta html tag that contain at least 3 of this words.

<meta name="description" content=.*(( the | that | of ).*){3,}.*>

The problem:

I have this 2 similar lines. Both have the same words, except the second line, where the is in a different place. So why does my regex finds only the second line, and not also the first line? How can I change the regex so as to find both lines?

<meta name="description" content="the mystery of the art that seeks its meaning.">

<meta name="description" content="the mystery of art that seeks the its meaning.">

Answer 1

For such search, you have to use positive lookahead:

• Ctrl+F
• Find what: <meta name="description" content="(?=[^">]*?\bthe\b)(?=[^">]*?\bthat\b)(?=[^">]*?\bof\b )[^">]*">
• CHECK Wrap around
• CHECK Regular expression
• Find All in Current Document

Explanation:

<meta name="description" content="      # literally
(?=                                     # positive lookahead, make sure we have after:
    [^">]*?                                 # 0 or more any character that is not " or >
    \b                                      # word boundary
    the                                     # the word the
    \b                                      # word boundary
)                                       # end lookahead
(?=[^">]*?\bthat\b)                     # same for the word that
(?=[^">]*?\bof\b )                      # same for the word of
[^">]*                                  # 0 or more any character that is not " or >
">                                      # literally

Screenshot:

Answer 2

Your first line has the words of and the together and you are searching for the three words with spaces before and after. Try inserting another word between of and the

Instead of putting actual spaces on your regex like ... WORD ... try with word boundaries like ...\bWORD\b...

Answer 3

Yes, I find another solution:

<meta name="description" content=.*(\b(the|that|of)\b.*){3,}.*>