From your expected results, I deduce you actually want a string that is surrounded by {...}, or one that is neither preceded by { nor followed by }.

That's correct: I want the string, optionally surrounded by braces. One brace on only one side is not acceptable. I'm glad that my listing of expected results was clearer than my description. ;-)

Your alternation approach certainly functions. However, I was also hoping to learn to use the conditional ( (?(COND)...) ) notation. So you answered the question I asked (thanks!); but left me with the one I didn't ask.

For my own education, can you think of a solution that uses the conditional notation, or would I be horribly abusing said to solve this problem?

<radiant.matrix>
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In reply to Re^2: Regex conditional match if previous match in same expression is true? by radiantmatrix
in thread Regex conditional match if previous match in same expression is true? by radiantmatrix

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