Dear monks

I have following problem, I need to match a pattern, that is enclosed either at the beginning, or the end of that pattern with another pattrn. I think that example will illustrate my problem in better way: 

pattern1 = abc:\(?(.*?)\)?\s
pattern2 = $variable.{0,5}\s

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so is it possible to match either pattern1pattern2 or pattern2pattern1 without the need to use of multiple comparisons or duplicate usage of either patterns. The reason why I want to avoid doing that is that both patterns are in fact a lot longer.
If you are still confused, please do ask.
And as always cheers for help.

In reply to Regex match at the beginning or end of string by cyber-guard

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