re = /\<b[^<]*?\>([^\s<]+?)\<\/b\>\s*(?!\<br\>)/i
str = 'should NOT match - this is the problem
<b>word</b> <br>
should match
<b>word</b> in text
half<b>word</b>'
# 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