"Brett S Hallett" <dragoncity / impulse.net.au> schrieb im Newsbeitrag news:3FC81A17.7050909 / impulse.net.au... > 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 ?? txt = line.scan /"[^"]*" | '[^']*' | \S+/x robert