CODEWITHSUNDEEP
regextcl
Chris Bao
Chris Bao

Reputation: 2868

Match exact number of pattern

For example, I have the following string:

-----ABC-----

And use 

regexp {^[\-]+.*[\-]+} $string

can match the above string. But if I want to match fixed number of -, e.g. 5 times, how to do that? I tried 

regexp {^[\-]{5}.*[\-]{5}} $string

But it doesn't work.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 279

Answers (2)

npinti
npinti

Reputation: 52185

Assuming that by does not work you mean that it also matches something like so: -----ABC--------------, you could change this: {^[\-]{5}.*[\-]{5}} to this: {^[\-]{5}[^-]*[\-]{5}$}.

The main difference is that I am specifying that mid section, that is, the section which in your example contains ABC should not be made out of dashes, so it will match 5 dashes from the beginning of the string (^[\-]{5}), followed by 0 or more characters which are not dashes ([^-]*), followed by 5 more dashes and a string termination ([\-]{5}$).

Upvotes: 1

asontu
asontu

Reputation: 4659

The .* part matches the - as well. I would change it to this:

^-{5}[^-]*-{5}$

[^-]* means "any character except a -. (you don't have to put the - in [] if it's the only allowed character)

Upvotes: 2

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