A greedy match is the longest representation of the first match. In the case of /e*/ the first match is the start of the string, and is zero characters long because the first character is not an 'e'. In the case of /e+/ the first match starts at the first 'e' and continues until it finds a non-'e' character.

In reply to Re^3: Greedy modifier found to be working non-greedy in a named group by hippo
in thread Greedy modifier found to be working non-greedy in a named group by rkabhi

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