Also, I was thinking that the regular expression itself could be
simplified, if all you're trying to match is the first quoted-string
or number.

This "[^"]*" RegEx is supposed to match quoted strings, and this
"[^"]*"{1} I think would match the first quoted string.

The above 2 regular expressions worked when tested here:
http://www.roblocher.com/technotes/regexp.aspx

I'm trying to find a simpler regular expression, I tried the above but
they did not match anything.

Also I found the above regular expression syntax at the bottom of the
example shown here:
http://www.regular-expressions.info/dot.html

-Regards
Rashmi

As I am an absolute RegEx beginner, please excuse me if this is a
trivial question.

At the moment I am playing with:

 <xsl:analyze-string select="$vstrInput"
regex='([\s]*)(("[^"\\]*((\\.[^"\\]*)*"))|((([-]?[0-9]+)?\.)?[-]?[0-9]+([eE][-+]?[0-9]+)?
))(.*)$' flags="m">

which should match only the first quoted-string or number in the
string-argument.

Is there any way I can split this RegEx on separate lines and/or add
whitespace so that it would be more readable?

--
Cheers,
Dimitre Novatchev
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Truly great madness cannot be achieved without significant intelligence.
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To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk
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You've achieved success in your field when you don't know whether what
you're doing is work or play