From: Andrew Timberlake Date: 2008-01-17T19:37:02+09:00 Subject: Re: Greedy and non greedy quantifiers > Im just after a bit of clarification with quantifiers in regular > expressions. > I just want to be sure of the differences between the quantifiers. so > for these various regular expressions, > > [a-z]* - this will match any amount lower case letters > [a-z]+ - this will match any amount lower case letters > (whats difference between + and * in this case?) > [a-z]+? - > > or > > \d* - This will match any amount of digits > \d*? - This will only match none or one number > > Please can someone offer some clarification Im still unsure of myself > with these expresions as I'm new to ruby, > Thanks, > Dan Dan * matches 0 or more of the preceding pattern + matches 1 or more of the preceding pattern ? matches 0 or 1 of the preceding pattern {n,m} matches n to m of the preceding pattern I stand to be corrected but I don't believe that *? or +? are valid at all. Andrew Timberlake andrew@andrewtimberlake.com 082 415 8283 skype: andrewtimberlake "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." --Mark Twain