From: David Alan Black <dblack@...>
Date: 2002-08-05T11:37:12+09:00
Subject: Re: Regex question

Hello --

On Mon, 5 Aug 2002, Gavin Sinclair wrote:

> Folks,
>
> Just a quick one.
>
> md = /\..*?$/.match "dotslash.tar.gz"
> md[0]            # -> ".tar.gz"
>
> I expect md[0] to be ".gz", because the question-mark in the regex tells *
> not to be greedy.  Can anyone enlighten?

It will still find the first '.' from the left, and then be
non-greedy.  In other words, non-greediness affects how much gets
consumed to the right in a given match.

Try this:

  /\.[^.]*$/

which forces the match to start at the right-most '.' on the line.


David

-- 
David Alan Black
home: dblack@candle.superlink.net
work: blackdav@shu.edu
Web:  http://pirate.shu.edu/~blackdav