From: Simon Strandgaard <neoneye@...>
Date: 2006-12-21T08:46:40+09:00
Subject: Re: Regex question: this should be easy but doesn't work as I expect.

On 12/20/06, Sam Kong <sam.s.kong@gmail.com> wrote:
[snip]
> "one two three four five" #=> [["one", "three", "five']]
> "one two four five" #=> [["one", nil, "five']]
[snip]

how about?

irb(main):001:0> r = /(one) (?: (.*?three) | ((?:.(?!>three))*) ) *? (five)/x
=> /(one) (?: (.*?three) | ((?:.(?!>three))*) ) *? (five)/x
irb(main):002:0> "one two three four five".scan(r)
=> [["one", " two three", " four ", "five"]]
irb(main):003:0> "one two four five".scan(r)
=> [["one", nil, " two four ", "five"]]

--
Simon Strandgaard
http://opcoders.com/