Help with a regular expression

Question

I'd like to write a regular expression that checks that a line is:

Delimited (by a comma, for example)
Has at least n # of delimited items (say 10, for example)

The items in the delimited list need not be alphanumeric. Some will have special characters. Also, some items may be absent, so there is no assurance that there will be something between delimiters.

I'm a newb to regexp so if your answer involves anything extra clever/advanced please explain

Thanks much

Can the delimiter occur inside the delimited items? If so, in what form (inside quotes, or escaped)? E. g. `1,"2,2",3\,3,4,5`? — Tim Pietzcker, Nov 25 '10 at 07:34
Hmm, didnt think of that. If you gave both that would be awesome — Ben G, Nov 25 '10 at 07:36
Sounds like what you want is a CSV parser then, not a regex. — Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams, Nov 25 '10 at 07:39
Thing is, I get data in a lot of formats. The only commonality is that its delimited. Sometimes its in common CSV format, sometimes its different. Would a CSV parser be the way to go, or using different regexps? — Ben G, Nov 25 '10 at 07:41
You should use a parser appropriate for the format, regex-based or otherwise. See: Strategy pattern — Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams, Nov 25 '10 at 07:44

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 25 '10 at 07:31

2

/^[^,]*(?:,[^,]*){9,}$/

answered Nov 25 '10 at 07:31

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams

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Thanks for the tips in the comments. Counting as an answer since this would benefit most people – Ben G Nov 25 '10 at 21:20

Help with a regular expression

1 Answers1