Match string with 3 possible variations in the middle

Asked Oct 18 '19 at 13:35

Active Oct 18 '19 at 22:19

Viewed 22 times

I'm looking to match the following strings:

Complete this list for Dave by five
Complete this list for Paul by five
Complete this list for Adam by five

Here is the regex I've tried:

*Complete\sthis\slist\sfor\sDave|Paul|Adam\sby\sfive*

But in my regex checker, Paul is matched even if the rest of the string is excluded (not present).

I've also tried:

*Complete\sthis\slist\sfor\s\bDave|Paul|Adam\b\sby\sfive*

But I still get a match with a single word 'Paul'.

Working in Perl regex, what would be the best way to capture all variations of the string in regex?

Thanks,

edited Oct 18 '19 at 22:19

Timur Shtatland

asked Oct 18 '19 at 13:35

greenage

3

Group subpatterns: `prefix(?:one|two|three)suffix` – Wiktor Stribiżew Oct 18 '19 at 13:36
Here is an example of what you may want in Perl: `perl -le 'print "Complete this list for Dave by five" =~ m{Complete \s+ this \s+ list \s+ for \s+ ( Dave | Paul | Adam ) \s+ by \s+ five}xms;'` Prints: `Dave` – Timur Shtatland Oct 18 '19 at 20:27

0 Answers0