Your right, the ? does make .+? non-greedy, but the (?:...)? say that you don't mind if the contained expression is missing, so as the .+? can match to the end (of any string), then no attempt is made to match the optional expression that follows it.

Hmm. Maybe this makes more sense? The earlier expression does match to the end of string, and the later (rightmost) expression is optional, so no attempt is made to match the latter.

Examine what is said, not who speaks.
"Efficiency is intelligent laziness." -David Dunham
"Think for yourself!" - Abigail

In reply to Re: Re: Re: Regular Expn Problem by BrowserUk
in thread Regular Expn Problem by venkatr_n

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