Regular expression: Define max length of string, with repeated groups

Question

The title might be confusing, but I will try to use some examples to explain. This is the current expression I've made.

^([A-ZÆØÅ][a-zæøå]+[\s-]{1}){2,20}$

I want an expression that will match these: So the general rule is,

-Every word has to start with a capital letter

-Following a capital letter can only be small letters

-There can be max one - or whitespace after each other

And the hard part, in every combination of these, I want the final line to be a maximum of 20 chars

I want an expression that will match these:

April-Can Æøå
An-An-An An An-An
Aaaaabbbbbcccccddddd
Aaa

Non-matching

andkas
Andfak-lkakad
AppleApple
Carrotcarrotcarrotcarrotcarrotcarrot
Banana- Banana
Apple-apple-apple-apple-apple banana banana apple carrot

score 14 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 02 '14 at 13:51

Use lookahead:

^(?=.{2,20}$)[A-ZÆØÅ][a-zæøå]+(?:[\s-][A-ZÆØÅ][a-zæøå]+)*$

Where:

(?=.{2,20}$) makes sure you have 2 to 20 char in tyhe string.
then you have a word that starts with capital letter eventually followed by a space or a dash and another word. It may have several words

anubhava · Answer 2 · 2014-10-02T14:01:10.993

0

You can use this regex:

^([A-ZÆØÅ][a-zæøå]{1,19}[\s-])*[A-ZÆØÅ][a-zæøå]{1,19}$

RegEx Demo

edited Oct 02 '14 at 14:01

answered Oct 02 '14 at 13:54

anubhava

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It matches string longer than 20 char. – Toto Oct 02 '14 at 13:55
1

The first group is unlimited in length :-( – Toto Oct 02 '14 at 13:57
1

Sorry but it isn't correct. OP wants the whole line to be less than 20 char. – Toto Oct 02 '14 at 14:03
Oh I think I got confused with **I want the final line to be a maximum of 20 chars** What exactly is **final line** here? – anubhava Oct 02 '14 at 14:08
Oh, sorry for being late to the party, @M42 is correct, I meant that I want the whole line to be a maximum of 20 chars. But thanks for the help :)! – Patidati Oct 02 '14 at 20:33

Regular expression: Define max length of string, with repeated groups

2 Answers2

RegEx Demo