title: VB.NET Regex.replace <>
body: <p>Im pretty new to regex and im having trouble using VB and regex.</p>
  
  <p>Im trying to remove a  <code>&lt;span ....&gt;</code> comment and replace it with <code>&lt;b&gt;</code></p>
  
  <p>so far ive got this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Regex.Replace(text, "&lt;span[^&gt;]*&gt;", "&lt;b&gt;", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>This correctly matches the span comment but when it replaces it with the string it strips the <code>&lt;&gt;</code> and just leaves the "<code>b</code>". Ive tried delimiting the <code>\&lt;b\&gt;</code> but it just skips the <code>\</code> and still removes the <code>&lt;&gt;</code> to leave <code>\b\</code>.</p>
  
  <p>Can anyone cure my ignorance and tell me what im doing wrong.</p>
  
  <p>Cheers</p>