Re^2: Non-greedy substitution

If .+? were to match any less, $ wouldn't match.

I'm sorry, but I don't understand why .+? doesn't match 2 characters at position 5 - the match has to be tied to the end of the string...doesn't it?

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Re^3: Non-greedy substitution by ikegami (Patriarch) on Nov 15, 2024 at 19:55 UTC
There can't be gaps in what matches. Ť`.+?`ť must start matching where Ť`,`ť left off. I added a "full" trace to my post.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^3: Non-greedy substitution by Paladin (Vicar) on Nov 15, 2024 at 19:58 UTC
The regex engine prioritizes "leftmost". So it will always find the left most place the entire regex will match.	[reply]
Re^4: Non-greedy substitution by ikegami (Patriarch) on Nov 15, 2024 at 20:14 UTC
That's wrong. That's the same mindset as saying `.?` prioritizes shortest. But we all know that mindset is flawed, since that's the issue at hand. For example, your explanation doesn't work for `\G(?s:.)?\K,(.+?)$`, which is the OP's pattern with the implicit bits made explicit.	[reply] [d/l] [select]