Regex: match only first instance of a pattern - regex

Using a regex for a string, we need to remove all text before the first instance of four digits in a row. We have a regex that "sort of" works:
^((?!\d{4}\w).)*
Given this string:
foo-bar-spring_06-2006_02_25.rm
the desired output is:
2006_02_25.rm
That works - if there's only one instance of a four-digit pattern. The string:
batt-fall_01-2001-11-10_0200-0400.rm produces this result: 0400.rm
It should produce:
2001-11-10_0200-0400.rm
Note: long story, but we cannot use a - or _ as a delimiter.
I feel like we're close. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks!

You can use a positive lookahead pattern after a lazily repeated . instead:
^.*?(?=\d{4})
Demo: https://regex101.com/r/8DZDQp/1
Alternatively, you can group the 4 digits:
^.*?(\d{4})
and substitute the match with the first group $1.
Demo: https://regex101.com/r/8DZDQp/3

A likely faster option would be to ignore the beginning and undesired part, without using lookarounds, and with a simple expression similar to:
(\d{4}.*\..+)$
or:
(\d{4}.*\.[a-z]+)$
End $ anchor is also unnecessary, without which it would still work.
Demo

Related

Split branch name regex

What regex could I use if I wanted to match bar-100 from foo/bar-100-baz. The original string could be longer with more hyphens.
Total regex beginner don't really have a start..
\/([^-]+) matches bar but I want to match the second hyphen somehow.
If a full-match might be desired, then
(?<=/)[a-z]+-\d+
Demo 1
or,
[a-z]+-\d+(?=-)
Demo 2
or,
[^/]+(?=-)
Demo 3
might also work OK.

Regex: how do I match a character before other capture characters?

I'm trying to match on a list of strings where I want to make sure the first character is not the equals sign, don't capture that match. So, for a list (excerpted from pip freeze) like:
ply==3.10
powerline-status===2.6.dev9999-git.b-e52754d5c5c6a82238b43a5687a5c4c647c9ebc1-
psutil==4.0.0
ptyprocess==0.5.1
I want the captured output to look like this:
==3.10
==4.0.0
==0.5.1
I first thought using a negative lookahead (?![^=]) would work, but with a regular expression of (?![^=])==[0-9]+.* it ends up capturing the line I don't want:
==3.10
==2.6.dev9999-git.b-e52754d5c5c6a82238b43a5687a5c4c647c9ebc1-
==4.0.0
==0.5.1
I also tried using a non-capturing group (?:[^=]) with a regex of (?:[^=])==[0-9]+.* but that ends up capturing the first character which I also don't want:
y==3.10
l==4.0.0
s==0.5.1
So the question is this: How can one match but not capture a string before the rest of the regex?
Negative look behind would be the go:
(?<!=)==[0-9.]+
Also, here is the site I like to use:
http://www.rubular.com/
Of course it does some times help if you advise which engine/software you are using so we know what limitations there might be.
If you want to remove the version numbers from the text you could capture not an equals sign ([^=]) in the first capturing group followed by matching == and the version numbers\d+(?:\.\d+)+. Then in the replacement you would use your capturing group.
Regex
([^=])==\d+(?:\.\d+)+
Replacement
Group 1 $1
Note
You could also use ==[0-9]+.* or ==[0-9.]+ to match the double equals signs and version numbers but that would be a very broad match. The first would also match ====1test and the latter would also match ==..
There's another regex operator called a 'lookbehind assertion' (also called positive lookbehind) ?<= - and in my above example using it in the expression (?<=[^=])==[0-9]+.* results in the expected output:
==3.10
==4.0.0
==0.5.1
At the time of this writing, it took me a while to discover this - notably the lookbehind assertion currently isn't supported in the popular regex tool regexr.
If there's alternatives to using lookbehind to solve I'd love to hear it.

Capture number between two whitespaces (RegEx)

I have the following data:
SOMEDATA .test 01/45/12 2.50 THIS IS DATA
and I want to extract the number 2.50 out of this. I have managed to do this with the following RegEx:
(?<=\d{2}\/\d{2}\/\d{2} )\d+.\d+
However that doesn't work for input like this:
SOMEDATA .test 01/45/12 2500 THIS IS DATA
In this case, I want to extract the number 2500.
I can't seem to figure out a regex rule for that. Is there a way to extract something between two spaces ? So extract the text/number after the date until the next whitespace ? All I know is that the date will always have the same format and there will always be a space after the text and then a space after the number I want to extract.
Can someone help me out on this ?
Capture number between two whitespaces
A whitespace is matched with \s, and non-whitespace with \S.
So, what you can use is:
\d{2}\/\d{2}\/\d{2} +(\S+)
^^^
See the regex demo
The 1+ non-whitespace symbols are captured into Group 1.
If - for some reason - you need to only get the value as a whole match, use your lookbehind approach:
(?<=\d{2}\/\d{2}\/\d{2} )\S+
Or - if you are using PCRE - you may leverage the match reset operator \K:
\d{2}\/\d{2}\/\d{2} +\K\S+
^^
See another demo
NOTE: the \K and a capture group approaches allow 1 or more spaces after the date and are thus more flexible.
I see some people helped you already, but if you would want an alternative working one for some reason, here's what works too :)
.+ \d+\/\d+\/\d+ (\d+[\.\d]*)
So the .+ matches anything plus the first space
then the \d+/\d+/\d+ is the date parsing plus a space
the capturing group is the number, as you can see I made the last part optional, so both floating point values and normal values can be matched. Hope this helped!
Proof: https://regex101.com/r/fY3nJ2/1
Just make the fractal part optional:
(?<=\d{2}\/\d{2}\/\d{2} )\d+(?:\.\d+)?
Demo: https://regex101.com/r/jH3pU7/1
Update following clarifications in comments:
To match anything (but space) surrounded by spaces and prepended by date use:
(?<=\d{2}\/\d{2}\/\d{2} )\S+
Demo: https://regex101.com/r/jH3pU7/3
Rather than capture, you can make your entire match be the target text by using a look behind:
(?<=\d\d(\/\d\d){2} )\S+
This matches the first series of non-whitespace that follows a "date like" part.
Note also the reduction in the length of the "date like" pattern. You may consider using this part of the regex in whatever solution you use.

REGEX- How can I get the first date after a underscore?

I just started to learn Regex but I'm struggling to get the first date of the following string:
gs://dcdt_-dcm_account/dcm_account_click_2016070510_20160631_165654_2592254.csv.gz
I want to get 20160705
Any Ideas?
Try using this regex:
^.*dcm_account_click_(\d{8}).*$
The (\d{8}) term is a capture group, and tells the regex engine to extract it and make it available.
\d{8} matches 8 numbers in sequence, which is what you are after.
Demo:
Regex101
You can use a regex like this:
k_(\d{8})
or with a positive lookbehind
(?<=k_)(\d{8})
And then access to the capturing group.
Working demo
Btw, if you just use (\d{8}) and look for the first match it also will work.
If there are no digits before the first date, you might very well get along with:
^\D*(\d+) # beginning of the line/string, followed by NON-digits
# capture the digits afterwards
See a demo on regex101.com.

Regex to match N-NN-NN

I need some help with a RegEx pattern match.
How do i write a regex if i want it to match
N-NN-N-NN-NN-N-NNN
but also
N-NN-NN-NN
Exmaple:
10pcs- ratchet spanner combination wrench 6-8-10-11-12-13-14-15-17-19
Cr-v,heated 12pcs-1/4dr 4-4.5-5-5.5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12-13 Cr-v,heated
17pcs-1/2dr 10-11-12-13-14-15-16-17-18-19-20-21-22-23-24-27-30
Cr-v,heated 1-2-33 Cr-V heater 1-.2-1-4
It needs to match where they is at least 2 - in the total string. So a phone number like this 020-11223344 is not to be matched.
The strings almost always look like this 6-8-10-11-12-13-14-15-17-19 , except sometimes a . can apper before a number, they also differ in length, is it possible?
I came up with this so far but it also matches on phone numbers and when a . appears it doenst match at all.
(\d-[^>])
On this page you can find the different patters: http://www.cazoom.nl/en/partij-aanbod/186-pcs-working-tools-trolly-3
What about this pattern:
[\d.]+(?:-[\d.]+){2,}
Match [\d.]+ if followed by at least 2x -[\d.]+
(?: Using a non capturing group for repetition.
test at regex101
The following regex will match the thing.
(?:\.?\d\.?\d?-){2,}\.?\d\.?\d?
Debuggex Demo
Just try with following regex:
^\d-\d{2}-\d(\d-\d{2})|(\d-\d{2}-\d-\d{3})$