regexp extract groups who has initial and final token

Question

I want to extract groups from a String like this

hkjh kha 1112266 -stsi- XXXX XXX 6616 -stsf- aa bbb 17761 jjh1 jjh1j -stsi- YYYY -stsf- kjhjk  kkj jjlklkj jljkj -stsi- YYYY YYY 123 -stsf- jkhkjh shkahska

my regexp

(-stsi-.*-stsf-)

extracts one big group

-stsi- XXXX XXX 6616 -stsf- aa bbb 17761 jjh1 jjh1j -stsi- YYYY -stsf- kjhjk  kkj jjlklkj jljkj -stsi- YYYY YYY 123 -stsf-

and I want three groups like this

-stsi- XXXX XXX 6616 -stsf-
-stsi- YYYY -stsf-
-stsi- YYYY YYY 123 -stsi-

inside -stsi- and -stsi- can be anything

If the answer below does not work, please let know. Also, it would be great if you specified the language you are using the regex in with the relevant code. — Wiktor Stribiżew, Dec 26 '15 at 18:53

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:59

2

Add the ? quantifier after .* so that it will match as few times as possible (.*?):

(-stsi-.*?-stsf-)

In the expression (-stsi-.*-stsf-), the character * is greedy, and it will match as many times as possible. The ? quantifier makes it lazy and prevents that.

edited May 23 '17 at 11:59

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answered Dec 26 '15 at 18:16

Josh Crozier

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regexp extract groups who has initial and final token

1 Answers1