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can anyone help with why the below regex isn't working please?

#include <Array.au3>
$text = "worm4,3snake,8maggot,tapeworm9,politician"
$array = StringRegExp($text,'(.*?),(.*?),(.*?),(.*?),(.*?)',3)
_ArrayDisplay($array)

The regex can digest the first 4 words but it seems like the regex is gagging on or repulsed by the 5th word?

Seriously though, it's not working for me and I don't know why.

I'm getting an array with 5 elements with the fifth element being empty (ie with no discernable value, coincidence???? i think not)

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I would put your problem down to the non-greediness of ".*?".  The minimum of ".*" in nothing.  The minimum of ".+" in one character.

#include <Array.au3>

local $text, $array
$text = "worm4,3snake,8maggot,tapeworm9,politician"

$array = StringRegExp($text,'(.*?),(.*?),(.*?),(.*?),(.*?)', 3) ; Does not work. The last question mark
;                                   after the "*" makes the last capture group so non-greedy that nothing is matched.

$array = StringRegExp($text,'(.*?),(.*?),(.*?),(.*?),(.+?)', 3) ; Does not work. The last question mark
;           after the "+" makes the last capture group so non-greedy that one character only is matched.

;$array = StringRegExp($text,'(.*?),(.*?),(.*?),(.*?),(.*?)$', 3) ; Works fine. Anchors end of string.

;$array = StringRegExp($text,'(.*?),(.*?),(.*?),(.*?),(.*)', 3) ; Works fine. The last question mark
;                                               makes the last capture group greedy to end of string.

;$array = StringRegExp($text,'(.*),(.*),(.*),(.*),(.*)', 3) ; Works fine. The question marks
;                                                    makes each capture group greedy to comas.

;$array = StringRegExp($text,'[^,]+', 3) ; Works fine. Capture all (sequences of) non-coma characters.
_ArrayDisplay($array)
Edited by Malkey
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Thanks for all the examples Malkey.  I got a good laugh out of the lack of greediness making the politician invisible.

I tried this and it worked:

$array = StringRegExp($text,'(?U)(.*?),(.*?),(.*?),(.*?),(.*?)', 3)

I've seen inverting greediness in the manual and still don't understand why this works.   I feel like a monkey who lit a fire by banging rocks together.  I made a fire but have no idea how i did it. lol

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".*?" mean "smallest matching string"

You define what is ahead "(. *?)" I mean comma.
But you have not defined the end of the range, ie after the last group, there is no sign that limit the scope of the group.
 
Therefore, the smallest matching string is an empty string.
 
try this:
$array = StringRegExp($text,'(?s)(.*?),(.*?),(.*?),(.*?),(.*?)$', 3)
Edited by mlipok

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I got a good laugh out of the lack of greediness making the politician invisible.

$array = StringRegExp($text,'(?U)(.*?),(.*?),(.*?),(.*?),(.*?)', 3)

I didn't realize the pun with the politician and greediness! Very funny indeed.

(?U) makes your pattern work and here is why: first, greediness affects only the rightmost part of subject (it doesn't change the current match point, and in particular the start of subject point). Since the four first (.*?) are followed by a hardwired comma, they are insensible to greediness. Hence greediness only affects what happens in the final sub-pattern. Either inverting it (by pattern-wide ?U or locally by not using the laziness ?) or following the pattern with a $ anchor is enough to make the politician reappear in the picture.

That it be a good thing or not is a distinct question.

Edited by jchd

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I've been doing some reading and playing with this more and came up with:

#include <Array.au3>
local $text = "worm4,3snake,8maggot,tapeworm9,politician"
$array = StringRegExp($text,'([^,]+)(?:,?)',3)
_ArrayDisplay($array)

I was trying to learn how to do it with repeating {4} and eventually felt myself slipping into insanity. 

Could someone please show me an example of how to do this using the repeating {} way?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Yes I know this an older post but I have been trying to get my brain around this and.....ach what fun.

An insane monkey that can build a fire, pretty much says it all;-)

Well to use the repeater you need something that repeats ( I think :huh2:  ) so I changed your $text a bit so this would work:

Obviously I'm new at this so this a just a stab:

#include <Array.au3>
local $text = "worm4,3snake,8maggot,tape-worm9,politician"
$array = StringRegExp($text,'\bw\w{4}\b',3) ; 4 letter word that begins with "w"
_ArrayDisplay($array)
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That returns words that begin with w and have 4 word characters after it i.e. 5 chrs in total.

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That returns words that begin with w and have 4 word characters after it i.e. 5 chrs in total.

So it is...

I was wondering why the output included the trailing 5th character, I assumed the /b excluded anything but letters?

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