Regular Expression to find string between two characters

Question

I'm trying to create a REGEX to find the string between \ and > in the following input :

\\RANDOM\APPLE\BOB\GEORGE\MIKE\TOM >>\\TEST\TEST2\TEST3\TEST\TEST\JOHN.

Desired Output:TOM

I've been able to create ([^>]+) to isolate the first section of the string before the first > . I just can't seem to figure out how to expand on this and isolate TOM.

Possible duplicate of [Learning Regular Expressions](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4736/learning-regular-expressions) — Biffen, May 23 '19 at 12:37
Regex engines in different languages have different capabilities. Can you add either a tag or edit your question to specify the language you are using. — WJS, May 23 '19 at 13:11
You need to do a web search on `lookahead` and `lookbehind assertions`. They are very useful in situations like this. — WJS, May 23 '19 at 13:24

chatnoir · Accepted Answer · 2019-05-23T12:53:54.120

1

Try

\\([^\\>]+?) >>

Regex Demo

In javascript:

let regex = /\\([^\\>]+?) >>/

// Note \\ is required for literal \ in js
let str = "\\\\RANDOM\\APPLE\\BOB\\GEORGE\\MIKE\\TOM >>\\\\TEST\\TEST2\\TEST3\\TEST\\TEST\\JOHN.";

match = str.match(regex);

console.log(match[1]); //TOM

edited May 23 '19 at 12:53

answered May 23 '19 at 12:45

chatnoir

2,185
1
15
17

Pablo · Answer 2 · 2019-05-23T13:15:10.973

This should works:

[^\\\s>]+(?=\s*>)

Demo:

It will works even if the desired match has one or more > after it and if has one or more whitespaces before >.

I mean: this regex will match TOM from all this strings:

\\RANDOM\APPLE\BOB\GEORGE\MIKE\TOM  >\\TEST\TEST2\TEST3\TEST\TEST\JOHN.
\\RANDOM\APPLE\BOB\GEORGE\MIKE\TOM  >>\\TEST\TEST2\TEST3\TEST\TEST\JOHN.
\\RANDOM\APPLE\BOB\GEORGE\MIKE\TOM>>\\TEST\TEST2\TEST3\TEST\TEST\JOHN.

Regular Expression to find string between two characters

2 Answers2