Negative lookbehind + Non capturing group

Question

(?<!")https:\/\/t.me\/(c)?\/?([\+a-zA-Z0-9]+)\/?([0-9]*)?

I want to find all telegram links without quotation marks (") but I don't want the leading negative lookbehind to be a group, how can I do this? I tried the following but it didn't work.

This code works but i want the initial negative lookbehind not to create group.

My steps:

(?:(?<!")) not worked,
(?<!(?:")) not worked either

Examples:

https://t.me/+AjFb2c8u85UfYrY0 -> True (1 group -> +AjFb2c8u85UfYrY0) (not two groups)
"https://t.me/+AjFb2c8u85UfYrY0 -> False

Why not use a single capture group? `(?<!")https://t\.me\/(?:c/)?([+a-zA-Z0-9]+)` https://regex101.com/r/T37UIr/1 Note that the optional parts at the end of the pattern outside of the group can be omitted. — The fourth bird, Nov 30 '22 at 22:44

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 01 '22 at 01:10

This code:

const regex = /(?<!")https:\/\/t.me\/(c)?\/?([\+a-zA-Z0-9]+)\/?([0-9]*)?/
const text = 'https://t.me/+AjFb2c8u85UfYrY0'
const [fullMatch, ...groups] = text.match(regex);
console.log(groups);

Returns [undefined, "+AjFb2c8u85UfYrY0", undefined]

So you might think the first undefined is because of your negative lookbehind, but it's not! The first undefined is the result of the (c)? capturing group.

So if you capture groups on a url with the /c/ pattern, here is what you'll get:

const regex = /(?<!")https:\/\/t.me\/(c)?\/?([\+a-zA-Z0-9]+)\/?([0-9]*)?/
const text = 'https://t.me/c/+AjFb2c8u85UfYrY0'
const [fullMatch, ...groups] = text.match(regex);
console.log(groups);

So there is nothing you need to do for the initial negative lookbehind not to create group. It is already working.

Negative lookbehind + Non capturing group

1 Answers1