Question

Are the following two regular expressions functionally equivalent? I ask because I get different results when I interchange them so I guess I know the answer is that they are not equivalent. However, I don’t understand why.

(,|$)

and

[,$]

I am basically looking for a comma or the end-of-line.

Answer 1

The first one means a comma or end_of_line

The second means a comma or a dollar sign

Generaly special characters inside a class lose their special meaning.

So, for your question:

I am basically looking for a comma or the end-of-line.

Use the first one (,|$)