How to avoid matching numeric string that has # at the beginning?

Question

I'm using below regular expression to match numbers that includes decimals, negative numbers inside quotes ("). What changes should I be doing so that it does not match "#1200"?

\"(-?\d*.?\d+)\"

"1200"     ---> matches as expected
"1200.67"  ---> matches as expected
"-1200"    ---> matches as expected
"-1200.67" ---> matches as expected
"#1200"    ---> I'm not expecting this to match. As you can see It has # at the beginning.

You need to escape the `.`. – Wai Ha Lee Jan 28 '19 at 06:31 — Wai Ha Lee, Jan 28 '19 at 06:31

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 28 '19 at 06:32

3

I believe it's the . in your regular expression. You haven't escaped it so it's being interpreted as "match any character". It should work if you escape it like so:

\"(-?\d*\.?\d+)\"

answered Jan 28 '19 at 06:32

ProgrammingLlama

36,677
7
67
86

Thanks! it works. – Jyoti Prasad Pal Jan 28 '19 at 11:20

How to avoid matching numeric string that has # at the beginning?

1 Answers1