How to write a regular expression to match a string with colon at the end

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Hi,

[0-9a-zA-z]:

This regular expression is for validating a string with one charecter or number and a colon at the end.

For Eg: 1:, a:, c:

How can I rewrite this regualr expression to accomodate any no. of charecter/ numbers infront of the colon (:).

Thanks in advance.

Posted 21-Apr-14 21:27pm

aswathy.s.88

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OriginalGriff · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-21T21:36:00

Solution 1

Either

[0-9a-zA-Z]+:

for "one or more", or

[0-9a-zA-Z]*:

for "zero or more"
But you may find this better:

\w+:

for "one or more", or

\w*:

for "zero or more"

"\w" is the equivalent of "[0-9a-zA-Z_]"

Posted 21-Apr-14 21:36pm

OriginalGriff

Comments

CPallini 22-Apr-14 3:42am

5.

Ajith K Gatty 22-Apr-14 3:58am

\w+: is a best solution.

aswathy.s.88 22-Apr-14 4:16am

Thank you so much OriginalGriff991 ....

And how to include special charecters too infront of the colon?

OriginalGriff 22-Apr-14 4:19am

Depends on what special characters you want! :laugh:

aswathy.s.88 22-Apr-14 5:00am

I want to use all teh special charecters.... so how will be the RegExp?

OriginalGriff 22-Apr-14 5:16am

"All the special characters" is not helpful: what is an allowable "special character" depends on your application. For example, a filename can't contain :, ? * or \
but a path can. List the characters you want, or try to define your problem more exactly.

aswathy.s.88 23-Apr-14 2:08am

Thanks alot for your support. :)

I'm using it for pattern matching and removing the text with the regularexpression

My questions are,

1. How to check a string like @abc:

2. Also I want to by pass the strings http: and https:
If I give the regular expression as "w+:" it will trim out the data fully. I want to retain the data http: and https:

How to do it?

OriginalGriff 23-Apr-14 4:19am

Regexes also contain optional segements: you can say "this or that", and sections which need to be there but are not in the match.
But at this point it starts to get quite complicated, and you need to fully explain your need, or all sorts of difficulties arise.

So work out what strings you are likely to get, and exactly what you want to happen to them. It's also worth getting a copy of Expresso:
http://www.ultrapico.com/Expresso.htm
It's free, and it examines and generates Regular expressions. I use it a lot!