CODEWITHSUNDEEP
regex
Rolf
Rolf

Reputation: 3

Regex match text after last '-'

I am really stuck with the following regex problem:

I want to remove the last piece of a string, but only if the '-' is more then once occurring in the string.

Example:

BOL-83846-M/L -> Should match -M/L and remove it

B0L-026O1 -> Should not match

D&F-176954 -> Should not match

BOL-04134-58/60 -> Should match -58/60 and remove it

BOL-5068-4 - 6 jaar -> Should match -4 - 6 jaar and remove it (maybe in multiple search/replace steps)

It would be no problem if the regex needs two (or more) steps to remove it. Now I have

[^-]*$

But in sublime it matches B0L-026O1 and D&F-176954

Need your help please

Upvotes: 0

Views: 89

Answers (2)

Cary Swoveland
Cary Swoveland

Reputation: 110675

You can match the following regular expression.

^[^-\r\n]*(?:$|-[^-\r\n]*(?=-|$))

Demo

If the string contains two or more hyphens this returns the beginning of the string up to, but not including, the second hyphen; else it returns the entire string.

The regular expression can be broken down as follows.

^            # match the beginning of the string
[^-\r\n]*    # match zero or more characters other than hyphens,
             # carriage returns and linefeeds
(?:          # begin a non-capture group
  $          # match the end of the string
|            # or
  -          # match a hyphen
  [^-\r\n]*  # match zero or more characters other than hyphens,
             # carriage returns and linefeeds
  (?=        # begin a positive lookahead
    -        # match a hyphen
    |        # or
    $        # match the end of the string
  )          # end positive lookahead
)            # end non-capture group

Upvotes: 0

The fourth bird
The fourth bird

Reputation: 163287

You can match the first - in a capture group, and then match the second - till the end of the string to remove it.

In the replacement use capture group 1.

^([^-\n]*-[^-\n]*)-.*$
  • ^ Start of string
  • ( Capture group 1
    • [^-\n]*-[^-\n]* Match the first - between chars other than - (or a newline if you don't want to cross lines)
  • ) Capture group 1
  • -.*$ Match the second - and the rest of the line

Regex demo

Upvotes: 3

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