Re^2: a regular expression question

i know the netgroup file i'm processing probably doesn't have 3 spaces before the first comma, what if it does?

i thought regular expression matches the short possible pattern, not the longest, am i wrong?

Comment on Re^2: a regular expression question

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Re^3: a regular expression question by roboticus (Chancellor) on Dec 18, 2012 at 15:41 UTC
brassbin: As toolic mentioned, the .* construct is greedy and tries to get the longest match. If you turn it into .?, it then looks for the shortest match. If you read the link he provided, you could verify that yourself. ...roboticus When your only tool is a hammer, all problems look like your thumb.*	[reply]
Re^4: a regular expression question by brassbin (Novice) on Dec 18, 2012 at 17:07 UTC
Thank you toolic, roboticus!	[reply]
Re^4: a regular expression question by brassbin (Novice) on Jan 29, 2013 at 14:29 UTC
i haven't figured out all the rules yet of posting, but i meant to say thank you for your help	[reply]
Re^4: a regular expression question by brassbin (Novice) on Dec 18, 2012 at 22:39 UTC
i don't know why a line that contains the words thank you doesn't show up	[reply]