I have been thinking about a regular expression that can transform a list like this: 

1. 10.Things.I.Hate.About.You[1999]DvDrip[Eng]-Ray 699.68 MB 
2. 100.Feet.2008.DvDRip-FxM 701.14 MB 
3. 11 - 14 1 286.22 MB 
4. 13_going_on_30(2004)[Brizzly] 700.23 MB 
...
1 523. Waz 699.93 MB 
1 524. We.Own.the.Night[2007]DvDrip[Eng]-Ray 700.87 MB 
1 525. Webs [2003]DVDRip[Xvid AC3[5.1]-RoCK&BlueLadyRG 1 347.70 MB

[download]

into: 
10.Things.I.Hate.About.You[1999]DvDrip[Eng]-Ray,699.68 MB
100.Feet.2008.DvDRip-FxM,701.14
11 - 14,1286.22
13_going_on_30(2004)[Brizzly],700.23 
...
Waz,699.93
We.Own.the.Night[2007]DvDrip[Eng]-Ray,700.87
Webs [2003]DVDRip[Xvid AC3[5.1]-RoCK&BlueLadyRG,1347.70

[download]
Assumption : The filesize is never > 9999.99MB

So far I have a partially working regex:

^[^\.]+\. (.+?) (?:([0-9])(?: ))?([0-9]+\.[0-9]{2}) MB.*$

that maps to

$1:$2$3

to complete the transformation.

I used the colon because no desktop OS would allow that in a filename, so I am safe.

I built the regex without any formal method (i.e, via using intution) and that very same intution tells me this regex is horrifically complicated and slow!

I wish RegExBuddy had a online version or something similar.

How do I build a better RegEx for the same? Hints, tips...

Is there any free/open tool that will allow me to profile my regex (except writing a Perl script)?

In reply to Regex hackery by PoorLuzer

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