RegEx: Match "year:2012" anywhere in a string?

Question

I'm working on a search engine, and i need the user to be able to filter the results by year. I want the user to be able to add "year:(four digits)" anywhere in the search string. I created this but it's not quite what i want:

(year\:\d{4})

It does indeed match what i need, but i only want to match if there is either whitespace or nothing next to it. Right now, it matches even if it's in the middle of a word.

Examples:

testyear:2012test - Don't want match
test year:2012test - Don't want match
test year:2012 test - DO want match
test year:2012 - DO want match

Any ideas?

Just use word boundaries '\b' around the regex to guarantee that. — Nightfirecat, Oct 06 '12 at 07:38

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 06 '12 at 07:38

3

You can use word boundaries:

\b(year:\d{4})\b

answered Oct 06 '12 at 07:38

Blender

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score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 06 '12 at 07:37

2

Use the below regex:

\byear:\d{4}\b

\b matches the word boundary

answered Oct 06 '12 at 07:37

xdazz

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RegEx: Match "year:2012" anywhere in a string?

2 Answers2