A regular expression for matching a multi-line string starts with x, ends with y and contains z, but not x in the middle

Question

Better explain with an example.

This is the text:

<li>hello 
THE WORDS
</li>

<li> cruel </li>

<li> world THE WORDS </li>

I want to find lines with <li>and ends with </li>and contains THE WORDS. I expect that will match only <li> hello THE WORDS </li>and <li> world THE WORDS </li>.

What I tried: (?s)<li>.*?(THE WORDS).*?</li>

In this case, the second coincidence <li> cruel </li> <li> world THE WORDS </li>.

I am using Sublime Text.

Answer 1

EDIT: For new requirements, use this regex:

(?s)<li>(?:(?!</li>).)*?THE WORDS.*?</li>

Explanation

• (?s)activates the mode DOTALL, allowing the point to match between lines
• <li> matches letter characters
• (?:(?!</li>).) , </li
• *? ....
• THE WORDS
• • *? ....
• literal </li>

( ):

( Sublime):

x+[^xy]*z[^xy]*y+

. regex demo.

• x+ x
• [^xy]* , x, y
• z z, ( )
• [^xy]* , x, y
• y+ y

Answer 2

xx hello zz yy, xx world zz yy zz .

<li>(?:(?!<\/li>).)*(THE WORDS).*?<\/li>

DEMO