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copied!<p>This is hard to do in one step. Writing a single regex that does that is virtually impossible.</p> <p>Try a two-step approach.</p> <ol> <li>Put a link around every "Paris" there is, regardless if there already is another link present.</li> <li>Find all incorrectly nested links (<code><a href="..."><a href="...">Paris</a></a></code>), and eliminate the inner link.</li> </ol> <p>Regex for step one is dead-simple:</p> <pre><code>\bParis\b </code></pre> <p>Regex for step two is slightly more complex:</p> <pre><code>(<a[^>]+>.*?(?!:</a>))<a[^>]+>(Paris)</a> </code></pre> <p>Use that one on the whole string and replace it with the content of match groups 1 and 2, effectively removing the surplus inner link.</p> <p>Explanation of regex #2 in plain words:</p> <ul> <li>Find every link (<code><a[^>]+></code>), optionally followed by anything that is not itself followed by a closing link (<code>.*?(?!:</a>)</code>). Save it into match group 1.</li> <li>Now look for the next link (<code><a[^>]+></code>). Make sure it is there, but do not save it.</li> <li>Now look for the word Paris. Save it into match group 2.</li> <li>Look for a closing link (<code></a></code>). Make sure it is there, but don't save it.</li> <li>Replace everything with the content of groups 1 and 2, thereby losing everything you did not save.</li> </ul> <p>The approach assumes these side conditions:</p> <ul> <li>Your input HTML is not horribly broken.</li> <li>Your regex flavor supports non-greedy quantifiers (.*?) and zero-width negative look-ahead assertions (<code>(?!:...)</code>).</li> <li>You wrap the word "Paris" only in a link in step 1, no additional characters. Every "<code>Paris</code>" becomes "<code><a href"...">Paris</a></code>", or step two will fail (until you change the second regex).</li> <li><p>BTW: regex #2 explicitly allows for constructs like this:</p> <p><code><a href="">in the <b>capital of France</b>, <a href="">Paris</a></a></code></p> <p>The surplus link comes from step one, replacement result of step 2 will be:</p> <p><code><a href="">in the <b>capital of France</b>, Paris</a></code></p></li> </ul>

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