RegEx to convert Word output to html order list

First: all standard answers are relevant to this question: you (should | can | can) not parse / process the html (valid or not) with a regex. For a wide variety of reasons not to do this, I recommend searching the web and / or SO.

That says (and if your paragraph tags cannot be nested!), You cannot do this in one replacement. First you need to wrap tags in <ol>

and </ol>

around your paragraphs, which looks like ordered lists. I am assuming a paragraph is an ordered list when it starts with <p> NUMBER.

(paragraph tag, some spaces, a number, and a full stop).

regex       : (?s)((?:<p>\s*\d+\.(?:(?!</p>).)*</p>\s*)+)
replacement : <ol>$1</ol>

      

        
        
        
      

    

Brief explanation:

// regex
(?s)                # enable DOT-ALL matching
(                   # open group 1
  (?:               #   open non-matching group 1
    <p>\s*\d+\.     #     match '<p>', zero or more spaces, a number and a full stop
    (?:(?!</p>).)*  #     [when looking ahead, if there no '</p>', only then match any character] zero or more times
    </p>            #     match '</p>'
    \s*             #     match zero or more white spaces
  )                 #   close non-matching group 1
  +                 #   non-matching group 1 one or more times
)                   # close group 1

// replacement
<ol>                # insert '<ol>'
$1                  # insert what is matched by the regex in group 1
</ol>               # insert '</ol>'

      

        
        
        
      

    

Your string will now contain:

<ol><p>1.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
Proin Facilisi Habitasse Hymenaeos Ligula Litora Luctus Mi </p>

<p>2.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
Nulla Auctor Bibendum Suspendisse Commodo Cras Cursus Anno </p>

<p>3.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
Ac Nec Netus Penatibus Purus Cras Mollis </p></ol>

      

        
        
        
      

    

Then replace all paragraphs (including their numbers!) With tags <li>

and </li>

:

regex       : (?s)<p>\s*\d+\.((?:(?!</p>).)*)</p>
replacement : <li>$1</li>

      

        
        
        
      

    

Again, a short explanation:

// regex
(?s)               # enable DOT-ALL matching
<p>                # match '<p>'
\s*                # match zero or more white space characters
\d+                # match one or more digits
\.                 # match a dot
(                  # start group 1
  (?:(?!</p>).)*   #   [when looking ahead, if there no '</p>', only then match any character] zero or more times
)                  # end group 1
</p>               # match '</p>'

// replacement
<li>               # insert '<li>'
$1                 # insert what is matched by the regex in group 1
</li>              # insert '</li>'

      

        
        
        
      

    

Your line will now look like this:

<ol><li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
Proin Facilisi Habitasse Hymenaeos Ligula Litora Luctus Mi </li>

<li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
Nulla Auctor Bibendum Suspendisse Commodo Cras Cursus Anno </li>

<li>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
Ac Nec Netus Penatibus Purus Cras Mollis </li></ol>

      

        
        
        
      

    

But again: be very careful. When there is one small mistake in the opening or closing tag, you may well end up in something far worse than you started!

No, this is not possible as a regular expression, because HTML is not an ordinary language .

Instead, take any HTML parser, find the subsequent nodes <p>

that are inside the common parent node whose content starts with ordered digits, and place them as <li>

in a new <ol>

node.