Regex exclude last matched character

Question

I have the following input text:

Teterboro US [TEB] - 20KM

I would like to get the following output :

Teterboro US

I am using the following expression :

.*\[

But it I am getting the following result

Teterboro US [

I would like to get rid of the last space and bracket " ["

I am using JavaScript.

What did you try and what was the result? Why not just use indexof / substring? — symcbean, Sep 27 '17 at 14:11
You want a "positive lookahead", https://stackoverflow.com/questions/24226953/positive-lookahead-with-javascript-regex — apsillers, Sep 27 '17 at 14:12
You have multiple options. You can use `[^[]+` without `g` flag, or you can use `.*?(?=\s*\[)` (which I'd suggest) — ctwheels, Sep 27 '17 at 14:14

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 27 '17 at 14:14

1

You can use /.*?(?=\s*\[)/ with match; i.e. change \[ to look ahead (?=\s*\[) which asserts the following pattern but won't consume it:

var s = "Teterboro US [TEB] - 20KM";

console.log(
  s.match(/.*?(?=\s*\[)/)
)

answered Sep 27 '17 at 14:14

Psidom

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score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 27 '17 at 14:15

1

You can try this pattern:

.*(?= \[)

It is positive lookahead assertion and it works just like you expect.

answered Sep 27 '17 at 14:15

cn007b

15,878
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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 27 '17 at 14:17

Another option (worth mentioning in case you're not familiar with groups) is to catch only the relevant part:

var s = "Teterboro US [TEB] - 20KM";
console.log(
  s.match(/(.*)\[/)[1]
)

The regex is:

(.*)\[

matches anything followed by "[", but it "remembers" the part surrounded by parenthesis. Later you can access the match depending on the tool/language you're using. In JavaScript you simply access index 1.

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 27 '17 at 14:17

0

You could use: \w+\s+\w+? Depending upon your input

answered Sep 27 '17 at 14:17

HoleInVoid

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Regex exclude last matched character

4 Answers4