I thought that using '(.*?)' would match up to 'b'

Why would it do that when it can match zero times?

  1. (a) matches 1 character at position 0.
  2. (.*?) attempts to match . 0 times at position 1.
  3. (.*?) matches 0 character at at position 1.
  4. (?:b=(\w))? attempts to match b=(\w) 1 times at position 1.
  5. b=(\w) fails to match at position 1.
  6. (?:b=(\w))? attempts to match b=(\w) 0 times at position 1.
  7. (?:b=(\w))? matches 0 characters at at position 1.
  8. Successful match.

In reply to Re: RE greediness by ikegami
in thread RE greediness by Danny

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