Regex - Match a single colon or a space followed by a hyphen

Question

I am writing some regex in Javascript. Now I am trying to match a (single colon) or a (space followed by a hyphen). I know if it was just a colon or a hyphen, I could do [:-]. But I'm not sure how to match either (the colon) or (space followed by hyphen).

Trying to match (a single colon) or (a space followed by a hyphen)

It's ambiguous what you mean - "(a single colon or a space) followed by a hyphen" vs. "(a single colon) or (a space followed by a hyphen)". Maybe see https://stackoverflow.com/q/27605991/3001761. — jonrsharpe, Mar 21 '23 at 15:48

InSync · Accepted Answer · 2023-03-21T15:52:56.900

2

Short and simple:

:    # Literal ':'
|    # or
\s-  # a whitespace followed by literal '-'.

Or, if you don't want line breaks and whatnot:

:| -

edited Mar 21 '23 at 15:52

answered Mar 21 '23 at 15:51

InSync

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Does all that need to go into brackets? Like this `[:|\s-]` ? – dmikester1 Mar 21 '23 at 15:52
1

@dmikester No, it is fine as it is. – InSync Mar 21 '23 at 15:53
@dmikester1 Why would it go in brackets? Brackets are for defining character sets, not grouping. Grouping is done with parentheses. – Barmar Mar 21 '23 at 15:58
@dmikester1 You obviously already know that, since you know about using `[:-]` to match either `:` or `-`. – Barmar Mar 21 '23 at 15:59
@dmikester1 I'm afraid that linking to your tweet is not a suitable thing to do in a SO comment. – InSync Mar 21 '23 at 17:00
@InSync Can you show me where it says that? – dmikester1 Mar 23 '23 at 17:05
@dmikester1 [When shouldn't I comment](https://stackoverflow.com/help/privileges/comment), *secondary discussion*. – InSync Mar 23 '23 at 18:08

Regex - Match a single colon or a space followed by a hyphen

1 Answers1