CODEWITHSUNDEEP
regex
Michele
Michele

Reputation: 8753

Match two words not having a specific word between them

I need to find all combinations of two words, say from and to, not having a particular word between them, say exclude

from
exclude
to

from
include
to

Only the second from -> to should match. Currently I can do this but just excluding single characters

from([^x]*?)to

Upvotes: 1

Views: 56

Answers (1)

Wiktor Stribiżew
Wiktor Stribiżew

Reputation: 626738

You need to use a tempered greedy token:

When to Use this Technique
Suppose our boss now tells us that we still want to match up to and including {END}, but that we also need to avoid stepping over a {MID} section, if it exists. Starting with the lazy dot-star version to ensure we match up to the {END} delimiter, we can then temper the dot to ensure it doesn't roll over {MID}:

{START}(?:(?!{MID}).)*?{END}

If more phrases must be avoided, we just add them to our tempered dot:

 {START}(?:(?!{MID})(?!{RESTART}).)*?{END}

This is a useful technique to know about.

Use

from((?:(?!exclude|to|from).)*)to

Use DOTALL modifier if you need the dot to match newlines.

See the regex demo

See a related SO thread about a tempered greedy token.

Upvotes: 1

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