# Regular expression **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [June 18, 2008, 10:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/regular-expression/140818 "2008-06-18T22:07:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Petr\_D](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/c89c15/32.png) [@Petr\_D](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Petr_D)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2008, 10:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/regular-expression/140818/1 "2008-06-18T22:07:02Z")
Hello Suppose I have a string with some repeating patterns: string = “some miscellaneous text [sdfsdf.wer], some more miscellaneous text [vbnfg.thy], and yet more text [jkhjkhjk.345]” I want catch all instances of “[.\*]” in this line - without the square brackets. - in the above example that would be ‘sdfsdf.wer’, ‘vbnfg.thy’, and ‘jkhjkhjk.345’. What regular expression would pull each instance of “[.\*]” into a separate element in an array? my\_match=string.match(’[(\w+.\w{3}]’) This only catches the first match, and ignores the second and third. grateful for any help. Petr. ---
**Author:** ![Petr\_D](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/c89c15/32.png) [@Petr\_D](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Petr_D)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2008, 10:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/regular-expression/140818/2 "2008-06-18T22:17:07Z")
Petr D. wrote: > What regular expression would pull each instance of “[.\*]” into a separate > element in an array? “some miscellaneous text [sdfsdf.wer], some more miscellaneous text [vbnfg.thy], and yet more text [jkhjkhjk.345]”.scan(/[[^]]+]/).flatten =\> ["[sdfsdf.wer]", “[vbnfg.thy]”, “[jkhjkhjk.345]”] HTH, Sebastian ---
**Author:** ![Petr\_D](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/c89c15/32.png) [@Petr\_D](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Petr_D)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2008, 10:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/regular-expression/140818/3 "2008-06-18T22:19:33Z")
On Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at 3:05 PM, Petr D. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Hello > > Suppose I have a string with some repeating patterns: > > string = “some miscellaneous text [sdfsdf.wer], some more miscellaneous text > [vbnfg.thy], and yet more text [jkhjkhjk.345]” > > I want catch all instances of "[._]" in this line - without the square > brackets. - in the above example that would be ‘sdfsdf.wer’, ‘vbnfg.thy’, > and ‘jkhjkhjk.345’. > string.scan /([[^]]_])/ > would do the trick > …although you could also use split with that same regex if you needed > the rest of the data for something. scan is only keeping the saved part of the regex, as marked by our parenthesies Inside of them is the slightly ugly statement [[^]\*]] since brackets are special in regexs, we have to escape them first, hence the [and] stuff So it matches one bracket, [, and anything that isn’t another bracket, ], followed by one bracket, ]. Does that make sense? –Kyle ---
**Author:** ![Petr\_D](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/c89c15/32.png) [@Petr\_D](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Petr_D)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2008, 11:11pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/regular-expression/140818/4 "2008-06-18T23:11:27Z")
On Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at 10:15 PM, Sebastian H. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > – > Jabber: removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid > ICQ: 205544826 scan( /[(.\*?)]/ ).flatten is a shorter alternative showing the use of the non greedy Kleene Star “\*?” But often it is indeed a good idea to be very explicit in your regular expressions. Cheers Robert – [http://ruby-smalltalk.blogspot.com/](http://ruby-smalltalk.blogspot.com/) * * * As simple as possible, but not simpler. Albert Einstein ---
**Author:** ![Petr\_D](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/c89c15/32.png) [@Petr\_D](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Petr_D)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2008, 3:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/regular-expression/140818/5 "2008-06-19T15:17:45Z")
On Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at 4:09 PM, Robert D. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > But often it is indeed a good idea to be very explicit in your regular > expressions. Often it’s a good idea just because it keeps you from using explicit language when debugging your code later… ---
**Author:** ![Petr\_D](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/c89c15/32.png) [@Petr\_D](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Petr_D)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2008, 10:27pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/regular-expression/140818/6 "2008-06-18T22:27:48Z")
Perfect. Thanks Kyle & Sebastian. On Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at 4:17 PM, Kyle S. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)