in reply to basic question: regular expression

Why do I get in case 1 and 5 no "a" at the end of the matching circuit ??.
  1. You asked for if /k?a?/: optionally 'k', optionally followed by 'a'.

    The optional 'k' was satisfied; everything after that was optional, so STOP here.

  2. You asked for if /k?a*/: Optionally 'k';, followed (or not) by zero or more 'a's.

    Found a 'k'; everything after is optional, so STOP here.

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