re = /<a\b[^>]*>(?!<\/a>)<a\b/m
str = '<a href="#1">qwerty</a> - should not match
<a href="#2">qwe</a><a href="#3">rty</a> - should not match
<a href="#4"><a href="#5">qwerty</a></a> - should match
<a href="#6"><span><a href="#7">qwerty</a></span></a> - should match'
# Print the match result
str.scan(re) do |match|
puts match.to_s
end
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for Ruby, please visit: http://ruby-doc.org/core-2.2.0/Regexp.html