Matching REx "(.*?)(\d*)" against "I have 2 numbers: 53147" 0 <> | 0| 1:OPEN1(3) 0 <> | 0| 3:MINMOD(4) 0 <> | 0| 4:STAR(6) 0 <> | 1| 6:CLOSE1(8) 0 <> | 1| 8:OPEN2(10) 0 <> | 1| 10:STAR(12) | 1| POSIXU[\d] can match 0 times out of 2147483647... 0 <> | 2| 12:CLOSE2(14) 0 <> | 2| 14:END(0) Match successful! (.*?)(\d*) <> <>