Not so simple. You have also to anchor the left hand end:

s/^.*?TEST/TEST/

[download]

Update: Argh - one day I'll stop getting bitten by that! Anonymous Monk is quite right. No backtracking is required to get a match so .*? matches everything from the start or the string up to TEST - no anchor needed.

True laziness is hard work

In reply to Re^2: How do you make a regex non greedy by GrandFather
in thread How do you make a regex non greedy by Anonymous Monk

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