What does +? mean in regex?

Question

I have seen +? a lot in regex, but I'm not sure what it really stands for. I know + means 1 or more, and ? means 0 or 1. So does +? means 0 or more? In that case, why not just use *, which means 0 or more?

I just need to know if +? means 0 or more, or it means something different. Then I'll delete this question if it's too annoying.

It means "one or more" - preferably as few as possible (shortest match). — hwnd, Sep 26 '15 at 01:55
`?` has different meanings depending on where it appears. After a `+` or a `*` or another `?` it means “non-greedy”. — Sebastian Simon, Sep 26 '15 at 01:56
@jessica The duplicate targets have multiple examples, plus this question: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/32491947 — Sebastian Simon, Sep 26 '15 at 02:01

score 13 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 26 '15 at 01:58

13

The ? makes the + "lazy" instead of "greedy". This means it tries to match as few times as possible, instead of trying to match as many times as possible.

answered Sep 26 '15 at 01:58

mgrant

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What does +? mean in regex?

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