Regex match for first ending
Question:
I have a text like this sample. i want to match first "something" in my text. the "something" have any character in it, so i should use (.*) for it.
Sample:
start: something, end ... blah blah ... start: something, end
I tried to match it like this:
start: (.*) end
but as you can expect this see last end in my text.
Answers:
You just need to add a ? to your current regex:
start: (.*?) end
https://www.debuggex.com/r/1VmZTRx0EqgNyH4Y
This will tell the .* to match lazily until the word "end".
Use a non-greedy match: start: (.*?) end.
Keep in mind it won’t match well if something has end inside it.
I have a text like this sample. i want to match first "something" in my text. the "something" have any character in it, so i should use (.*) for it.
Sample:
start: something, end ... blah blah ... start: something, end
I tried to match it like this:
start: (.*) end
but as you can expect this see last end in my text.
You just need to add a ? to your current regex:
start: (.*?) end
https://www.debuggex.com/r/1VmZTRx0EqgNyH4Y
This will tell the .* to match lazily until the word "end".
Use a non-greedy match: start: (.*?) end.
Keep in mind it won’t match well if something has end inside it.