How can I simplify my regexp (^(\w+)\/(\w+)\/(\d+)$|^(\w+)\/(\w+)\/$|^(\w+)\/(\w+)$) to match examples like controller/action(/id)? My current regex looks so long and complex :(
Matching examples:
controller/action
controller/action/
controller/action/123
Non-matching:
controller/
controller/action/action
controller/action/123/
controller/action/123/456
You can use the following regex featuring optional groups:
^(\w+)\/(\w+)(?:\/(\d+)?)?$
^^^ ^ ^
See the regex demo
This regex matches:
^ - start of a string(\w+) - one or more alphanumeric or underscore characters\/ - a / symbol(\w+) - one or more alphanumeric or underscore characters(?:\/(\d+)?)? - an optional (one or zero occurrences) sequence (due to (?:...)? construct, a non-capturing group (?:...) + a ? - one or zero - quantifier) matching
\/ - a forward slash(\d+)? - optional capturing group matching one or more digits (but this group can be missing since the ? quantifier is applied to the whole group (...))$ - end of string anchor.
Non-matching:mean you do not want to match them?