RegEx Error: Exceeded predefined bounds.

[tamluenwai29]

Hi all, 

I am trying to extract the data which matches the following regular expression: <c.+?</c>

However, I got an error in regards to the RegEx tools as below:

RegEx (19) There was an error in regex_search The complexity of matching the regular expression exceeded predefined bounds.  Try refactoring the regular expression to make each choice made by the state machine unambiguous.  This exception is thrown to prevent "eternal" matches that take an indefinite period time to locate.

I would like to know if there are any ways that allow me to adjust the predefined bounds? Since I think the regular expression that I have inputted is the simplest. OR whether there is any other way to achieve the same result? 

I have tried to use formula tools: REGEX_Match([worksheet_OuterXML], "<c.+?</c>"). However, it doesn't match any characters and returns "0" to me. Therefore, it seems that this doesn't work in this case. 

Again, thanks all of you for your kind assistance!!

[Bren_Spill]

@tamluenwai29 - can you please provide a sample of the string you are trying to parse?

[apathetichell]

Your probable problem is that you are sending in the wrong .xml file. Can you double check if that .xml pair is in the file you are sending in?  open it in notepad.

I mentioned this on another thread regarding this issue  --- dealing with formatting of an Excel file is incredibly complicated and time consuming. It is not easy.