Question

"^(?:(2\d\d\d)\s+)?(?:Comm\. Rep\.\s+)?(?:CONG\s+)?(\S+)\s+(\S+)\s+(?:No\.\s+)?(\S+)(?:\s+\(.*?\))?$"

Currently this is able to parse a string like

2009 IA H.B. 184 (NS)

How can I make it parse a text like

2009 IA HEART RATE 184 (NS)

I’m looking for a tweak that’ll make it parse the spaced word HEART RATE.

EDIT:
It seems to work as long as the third word is not spaced out. Like for e.g.
It works for 2009 IA REG 184 (NS) … But as soon as the third word is actually made of spaces it goes out of whack like HEART RATE for example.

Answer 1

I’m going to make the assumption that you want all those space separated words, which doesn’t work right now because you are trying to read the “third word” (the second regex capture group) HEART RATE by just reading until you find a space (the second (\S+)).

To fix this, I’ll assume you the “third word” is all the space separated words until you hit a number or a word starting with No. (tell me if this assumption is wrong!). This is the ((?:\S|\s(?!\d|No\.))+) in the solution.

Here is my solution:

"^(?:2\d{3}\s+)?(?:Comm\. Rep\.\s+)?(?:CONG\s+)?(\S+)\s+((?:\S|\s(?!\d|No\.))+)\s+(?:No\.\s+)?(\S+)(?:\s+\(.*?\))?$"

When I test it on

2009 IA H.B. 184 (NS)

it (still) finds the third word to be H.B.

When I test it on

2009 IA HEART RATE 184 (NS)

it finds the third word to be HEART RATE

When I test it on

2009 IA HEART RATE None 184 (NS)

it finds the third word to be HEART RATE None

When I test it on

2009 IA HEART RATE No. 184 (NS)

it finds the third word to be HEART RATE

Looks good?

PS gskinner is awesome.