RegEx find all matches not present in the following set

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How to perform a regex replace on the dot symbol that is not present within a specific match (for example in an image HTML tag) 

str = "Hi. the symbol before me is my match target <img src='http://skip.these.dots/and.this.as.well' alt='me.three' /> but still match this."

To be replaced with (for example) * symbol

res = "Hi* the symbol before me is my match target <img src='http://skip.these.dots/and.this.as.well' alt='me.three' /> but still match this*"
regexp-replace regex-group regex
1 Answers

Try this:

\.(?![^<]*\/>)

Demo

The regex engine performs the following operations.

\.      # match period
(?!     # begin negative lookahead
  [^<]* # match 0+ chars other than '<'
  \/>   # match '/>'
)

The negative lookahead fails if it encounters /> after the period without any intervening <, meaning the period must be between a < and an />.

You wish to replace each match of a period with *. How you do that depends on the language you are using, but it is undoubtedly straightforward.

user_2569700
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