• Chris (13/13) May 25 2015 I'm a bit at a loss here. I cannot get the longest possible
• Namespace (3/16) May 25 2015 Make the + operator less greedy:
• novice2 (3/4) May 25 2015 it match longest for first group ([a-z]+)
• Chris (5/9) May 25 2015 Namespace, novice2:

"Chris" <wendlec tcd.ie> writes:

I'm a bit at a loss here. I cannot get the longest possible 
match. I tried several versions with eager operators and stuff, 
but D's regex engine(s) always seem to return the shortest match. 
Is there something embarrassingly simple I'm missing?

void main()
{
   import std.regex : regex, matchFirst;
   import std.stdio : writeln;

   auto word = "blablahula";
   auto m = matchFirst(word, regex("^([a-z]+)(hula|ula)$"));
   writeln(m);  // prints ["blablahula", "blablah", "ula"]
}

I want it to return "hula" not "ula".

"Namespace" <rswhite4 gmail.com> writes:

On Monday, 25 May 2015 at 11:11:50 UTC, Chris wrote:
 I'm a bit at a loss here. I cannot get the longest possible 
 match. I tried several versions with eager operators and stuff, 
 but D's regex engine(s) always seem to return the shortest 
 match. Is there something embarrassingly simple I'm missing?

 void main()
 {
   import std.regex : regex, matchFirst;
   import std.stdio : writeln;

   auto word = "blablahula";
   auto m = matchFirst(word, regex("^([a-z]+)(hula|ula)$"));
   writeln(m);  // prints ["blablahula", "blablah", "ula"]
 }

 I want it to return "hula" not "ula".

Make the + operator less greedy:

matchFirst(word, regex("^([a-z]+?)(hula|ula)$"));

"novice2" <sorryno em.ail> writes:

 I cannot get the longest possible

it match longest for first group ([a-z]+)

try

^([a-z]+?)(hula|ula)$

"Chris" <wendlec tcd.ie> writes:

On Monday, 25 May 2015 at 11:20:46 UTC, novice2 wrote:
 I cannot get the longest possible

 it match longest for first group ([a-z]+)

 try

 ^([a-z]+?)(hula|ula)$

Namespace, novice2:

Ah, I see. The problem was with the first group that was too 
greedy, not with the second. I was focusing on the latter. 
Thanks, this works now!