sed command

[prad87]

i need to delete a block of text containing a regex

for instance I have a xml file which is:
<item>
<key>166</key>
<value>x</value>
</item>
<item>
<key>200</key>
<value>y</value>
</item>

i need to delete the item(block of text between <item> and </item> containing the key 166 so how can I make use of sed here
Can someone please provide the sed command to be used?

[Schmidt]

i need to delete a block of text containing a regex

for instance I have a xml file which is:
<item>
<key>166</key>
<value>x</value>
</item>
<item>
<key>200</key>
<value>y</value>
</item>

i need to delete the item(block of text between <item> and </item> containing the key 166 so how can I make use of sed here
Can someone please provide the sed command to be used?

You should build a regexp that looks like

's#<item><key>166</key>.*</item>##g'

where instead of .* you should suggest an appropriate template (this could be a bit more complex, then just one sigil :) ).
I advise you to read regexp tutorials in Perldoc for details :)

[Cabhan]

You may be able to write a regular expression to do this for specific and simple cases, but general XML parsing and understanding cannot be done with regular expressions. Your best bet would be to use a full XML parser that could delete the necessary elements and create a new XML document.