Using regexp to find a reoccurring pattern in MATLAB

Question

 input = ' 12Z taj 20501 jfdjda OCNL jtjajd ptpa 23Z jfdakdkf tjajdfk OCNL fdkadja 02Z fdjafsdk fkdsafk OCNL fdkafk dksakj = '

using regexp

regexp(input,'\s\d{2,4}Z\s.*(OCNL)','match')

I'm trying to get the output

[1,1] = 12Z taj 20501 jfdjda OCNL jtjajd ptpa

[1,2] = 23Z jfdakdkf tjajdfk OCNL fdkadja

[1,3] = 02Z fdjafsdk fkdsafk OCNL fdkafk dksakj

What is the trailing boundary pattern of the expected match? It does not look like `OCNL` is the trailing boundary. — Wiktor Stribiżew, Sep 19 '18 at 10:03
@ran_0315 The lazy quantifier itself does not yield the expected results. — Wiktor Stribiżew, Sep 19 '18 at 10:04
Try `(?<!\S)\d{2,4}Z\s.*?\S(?=(?:\s\d{2,4}Z\s|\s*=\s*$))` pattern. — Wiktor Stribiżew, Sep 19 '18 at 10:05
@John You have asked three regex questions to which you have received answers. Please provide feedback to those people who are trying to help you out. — Paolo, Sep 19 '18 at 22:10
This method (?<!\S)\d{2,4}Z\s.*?\S(?=(?:\s\d{2,4}Z\s|\s*=\s*$)) work perfectly! — John, Sep 20 '18 at 03:19

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 20 '18 at 08:18

You may use

(?<!\S)\d{2,4}Z\s+.*?\S(?=\s\d{2,4}Z\s|\s*=\s*$)

Details

(?<!\S) - there must be a whitespace or start of string immediately to the left of the current location
\d{2,4} - 2, 3 or 4 digits
Z - a Z letter
\s+ - 1+ whitespaces
.*?\S - any zero or more chars as few as possible and then a non-whitespace
(?=\s\d{2,4}Z\s|\s*=\s*$) - there must be either of the two patterns immediately to the right of the current location:
- \s\d{2,4}Z\s - a whitespace, 2, 3 or 4 digits, Z and a whitespace
- | - or
- \s*=\s*$ - a = enclosed with 0+ whitespace chars at the end of the string.

1 Answers1