CODEWITHSUNDEEP
regexregex-group
Michael O
Michael O

Reputation: 67

Regex matching different numbers in meter presentation

I'm trying to match different variations of distance presentation which works pretty well for bigger values but fails on single digits

^(?:(?<distanceMeter>\d+[,|.]?\d+?) ?\/? ?(?<distanceFemaleMeter>\d+?[,|.]?\d+?)?) ?-m ?(?<text>[\w\s]+) matches

But it fails to match

I thought d+ always matches 1 or more digits, but its not working.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 54

Answers (2)

The fourth bird
The fourth bird

Reputation: 163477

In the pattern that you tried you use \d+? which matches at least 1 digits, and making it non greedy matches the least amount, but there still has to be at least a single digit.

Note that using (?:\d+)? is the same as \d*, and using [\w\s]+ at the end can also match only whitespace chars (that can also match only newlines) You can use a space instead, as in the rest of the pattern you also match spaces.

Your examples should all match the digits at the start, and are followed by an optional / and digits part and then the -m part should be present followed by "text"

For that format, you can make the whole part with / and the digits optional.

^(?<distanceMeter>\d+(?:[,.]\d+)?)(?: ?\/ ?(?<distanceFemaleMeter>\d+(?:[,.]\d+)?))? ?-m ?(?<text>\w+(?: \w+)*)
  • ^ Start of string
  • (?<distanceMeter>\d+(?:[,.]\d+)?) Group distanceMeter, match 1+ digits with an optional decimal part
  • (?: Non capture group
    • ?\/ ? Match / between optional spaces
    • (?<distanceFemaleMeter>\d+(?:[,.]\d+)?) Group distanceFemaleMeter, match 1+ digits with an optional decimal part
  • )? Close the non capture group and make it optional
  • ?-m ? Match -m between optional spaces
  • (?<text>\w+(?: \w+)*) Group text, match 1+ word chars and optionally repeat a space and 1+ word chars

See a regex demo.

Upvotes: 1

Michael O
Michael O

Reputation: 67

After posting I actually figured out that creating a new group can handle this, so instead of \d+? using (?:\d+)? works

^(?:(?<distanceMeter>\d+[,|.]?(?:\d+)?) ?\/? ?(?<distanceFemaleMeter>\d+?[,|.]?(?:\d+)?)?) ?-m ?(?<text>[\w\s]+)

Upvotes: 0

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