Extract text only from the first square brackets

Question

If I have a string such as:

[text1]Blablablabla[text2]blalal

How do I extract only what is inside first []?

I use this formula to extract content between []

REGEXEXTRACT(B52, "\[(.+)\]")

With above formula I would get: text1][text2.

Not sure how to limit it only for the first pair of [] though, where I would get only text1

All you needed was to use a lazy instead of greedy quantifier. — Wiktor Stribiżew, Sep 01 '19 at 22:49

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 01 '19 at 22:33

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My guess is that this expression might simply work:

REGEXEXTRACT(B52, "^\[(.+?)\]")

or if lookarounks are supported,

REGEXEXTRACT(B52, "(?<=^\[)[^\]]*")

Demo 2

If you wish to explore/simplify/modify the expression, it's been explained on the top right panel of regex101.com. If you'd like, you can also watch in this link, how it would match against some sample inputs.

answered Sep 01 '19 at 22:33

Emma

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Thank you very much! I just modified it a little bit in case first brackets are not at the beginning of the string (i.e. removed ^). – NadanSHA Sep 01 '19 at 22:47

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 01 '19 at 22:38

0

=REGEXEXTRACT(SPLIT(A1, "]"), "\[(.+)")

=REGEXEXTRACT(A1, "\[(.+?)\]")

answered Sep 01 '19 at 22:38

player0

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Great alternative solution, sir. I will try to experiment more with it. You have been helping me a lot with regex lately :)) – NadanSHA Sep 01 '19 at 22:51
wish I can mark more than one answer as correct :( – NadanSHA Sep 01 '19 at 22:56

Extract text only from the first square brackets

2 Answers2

Demo 2