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hi,

let us search a.+b in string abcabcabc

var reg = /a.+b/g;
var tab = reg.exec("abcabcabc");

document.write(tab[0]);

there are 2 possible matchs:

abcab
abcabcab

javascript choose the second one. Why not. But what is the rule ?
Does javascript always provide the longest possible match ?

If i want abcab, is there something to do ?

ast wrote:

> let us search a.+b in string abcabcabc
>
> var reg = /a.+b/g;
> var tab = reg.exec("abcabcabc");
>
> document.write(tab[0]);
>
> there are 2 possible matchs:
>
> abcab
> abcabcab
>
> javascript choose the second one. Why not. But what is the rule ?
> Does javascript always provide the longest possible match ?

(There is no "javascript".)

Yes, RTFM. Regular expressions are "greedy" by default.

> If i want abcab, is there something to do ?

RTFM.


PointedEars
--
Anyone who slaps a 'this page is best viewed with Browser X' label on
a Web page appears to be yearning for the bad old days, before the Web,
when you had very little chance of reading a document written on another
computer, another word processor, or another network. -- Tim Berners-Lee

ast wrote:

> let us search a.+b in string abcabcabc
> var reg = /a.+b/g;
> var tab = reg.exec("abcabcabc");
> document.write(tab[0]);
>
> there are 2 possible matchs:
> abcab
> abcabcab
> javascript choose the second one. Why not. But what is the rule ?
> Does javascript always provide the longest possible match ?

The rule is to return the (chronologically) last found match.

> If i want abcab, is there something to do ?

'+' = repeat 1 or more times
'+?' = repeat 1 or more times, as few as possible

So:

var reg = /a.+?b/g;

Hope this helps,

--
Bart

Bart Van der Donck wrote:

> ast wrote:
>> var reg = /a.+b/g;
>> var tab = reg.exec("abcabcabc");
>> Does javascript always provide the longest possible match ?
>
> The rule is to return the (chronologically) last found match.

Sorry, incorrect. It's indeed the longest one.

--
Bart

"ast" <> writes:

> hi,
>
> let us search a.+b in string abcabcabc
>
> var reg = /a.+b/g;
> var tab = reg.exec("abcabcabc");
> document.write(tab[0]);
>
> there are 2 possible matchs:
>
> abcab
> abcabcab
>
> javascript choose the second one. Why not. But what is the rule ?

The rule is that the "+" quantifier means: Match as many as possible
of the regexp it's quantifying (in this case '.').

The "as many as possible" doesn't always mean "as long as possible",
e.g.,
/(?:..|...)+/.exec("123456789")
matches only "12345678", not all nine characters.

> Does javascript always provide the longest possible match ?

For the "+" quantifier, yes.

> If i want abcab, is there something to do ?

Use the "+?" (non-greedy) quantifier:
/a.+?b/

/L
--
Lasse Reichstein Holst Nielsen
'Javascript frameworks is a disruptive technology'