CODEWITHSUNDEEP
objective-cregexpattern-matching
James M-Coates
James M-Coates

Reputation: 115

Regex only match after a certain string

I am hoping to match multiple names within a document, but only match names after a certain string.

For example, the document:

Name: Tom
Name: Alex
Name: Karina
Name: Other Names
Name: Josh
Name: Sarah
Name: Mike

So I want to only match names that are after "Other Names". The intended output would be Josh, Sarah, Mike.

My current pattern: (?:Other Names)[\s\S]+([A-Za-z]+)

But it only returns the last name!

Upvotes: 4

Views: 407

Answers (3)

parthi
parthi

Reputation: 734

name: *other *names\s*([a-zA-Z ]+)

the above regex will give ypu the exact result what you want. Use ignore case option

Upvotes: 0

Wiktor Stribiżew
Wiktor Stribiżew

Reputation: 626861

It can be achieved in Objective C since the regex flavor it supports is ICU (it supports the \G operator):

(?:Name:\s+Other\s+Names\s*|(?!^)\G\s*)Name:\s+(\w+)

See the regex demo

The (?:Name:\s+Other\s+Names\s*|(?!^)\G\s*) part will find the Name: Other Names and (?!^)\G will match the end of the previous successful match. Name:\s+(\w+) will match Name: + whitespace(s) and capture into Group 1 the Name (if it consists of 1 word). If it contains more, just use .+ instead of \w+.

See the Objective C demo:

NSError *error = nil;
NSString *pattern = @"(?:Name:\\s+Other\\s+Names\\s*|(?!^)\\G\\s*)Name:\\s+(\\w+)";
NSString *string = @"Name: Tom\nName: Alex\nName: Karina\nName: Other Names\nName: Josh\nName: Sarah\nName: Mike";
NSRange range = NSMakeRange(0, string.length);
NSRegularExpression *regex = [NSRegularExpression regularExpressionWithPattern:pattern options:0 error:&error];
NSArray *matches = [regex matchesInString:string options:0 range:range];
for (NSTextCheckingResult* match in matches) {
    NSRange group1 = [match rangeAtIndex:1];
    NSLog(@"group1: %@", [string substringWithRange:group1]);
}

Upvotes: 1

Jeyamahesan
Jeyamahesan

Reputation: 1111

use this regex (?<=Other Names).*

NSString *text = @"Name: Tom Name: Alex Name: Karina Name: Other Names Name: Josh Name: Sarah Name: Mike";

NSString *pattern = @"(?<=Other Names).*";

NSRegularExpression *regularExpression = [NSRegularExpression regularExpressionWithPattern:pattern options:0 error:nil];

NSTextCheckingResult *match = [regularExpression firstMatchInString:text options:0 range:NSMakeRange(0, [text length])];

NSString *output = [text substringWithRange:[match rangeAtIndex:0]];

Upvotes: 0

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