Hi, I am trying to split the following line of text: <button> "btn Exit" "Exit Button" ( note the quotes may be " or ' , read from a file) in such a way that I can say txt = line.split(/regrex/) and get back txt[0] = <button> txt[1] = btn Exit txt[2] = Exit Button my current regexp ans = tst.split(/[\"|\']/) does this , except that the last set is missing ! , txt[0] = <button> txt[1] = btn Exit txt[2] = so how do I get the expression to continue processing the line ?? Thanks