I am using this regex:
((?:[a-z][a-z]+))_(\d+)_((?:[a-z][a-z]+)\d+)_(\d{13})
to match strings like this:
SH_6208069141055_BC000388_20110412101855
separating into 4 groups:
SH
6208069141055
BC000388
20110412101855
Question: How do I make the first group optional, so that the resulting group is a empty string?
I want to get 4 groups in every case, when possible.
Input string for this case: (no underline after the first group)
6208069141055_BC000388_20110412101855
Making a non-capturing, zero to more matching group, you must append ?.
(?: ..... )?
^ ^____ optional
|____ group
? matches "zero or one times" and * matches "zero or many times"
?: at the start of the group do?(...) will capture the content in the results, but (?:...) makes it a non-capturing group, so it must match (or apply) but will not be included in the resulting groups.You can easily simplify your regex to be this:
(?:([a-z]{2,})_)?(\d+)_([a-z]{2,}\d+)_(\d+)$
^ ^^
|--------------||
| first group ||- quantifier for 0 or 1 time (essentially making it optional)
I'm not sure whether the input string without the first group will have the underscore or not, but you can use the above regex if it's the whole string.
As you can see, the matched group 1 in the second match is empty and starts at matched group 2.
