CODEWITHSUNDEEP
regexstringmatch
user3256222
user3256222

Reputation: 87

Match string with number range at the end

I'm checking for serial ports and I only want to use ones that match "COM1-4". I could not figure out the syntax.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 461

Answers (2)

Floris
Floris

Reputation: 46365

Expanding a bit on Tim's answer:

If you want to match a specific range of characters, you can use [] notation - for numbers, you can say [1-4] to match (characters) '1', '2', '3', or '4'.

If you want a number at the end of a string, you mark "end of string" with the $ sign.

Finally, if you have a piece of "normal" text that you want to match exactly, you use that string. Note that if your string contains characters that have special meaning for regex (things like ., \. +, (), [], etc) you need to be more careful.

When you want to match "only this in the string and nothing else", you use the anchors for "start of string" ^ and "end of string" $ to surround your expression.

This is how you end up with

^COM[1-4]$

for exactly one of COM1, COM2, COM3, or COM4.

If you could have other things before, leave off the ^.

Upvotes: 0

Tim Pietzcker
Tim Pietzcker

Reputation: 336108

This is trivial:

^COM[1-4]$

See this tutorial about character classes and anchors.

Upvotes: 2

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