Question

Can someone help me to match the pattern? I need to get numbers out of this string

TASK REMAINING TOTAL changed from [0.0] to [1.5], TASK ESTIMATE TOTAL changed from [0.0] to [5.0], PLAN ESTIMATE added [5.0 Points]

I need to get exactly the numbers after TASK ESTIMATE TOTAL. So, it should be in regex, but not in the match.

Answer 1

This regex would get the numbers for you:

/\[(\d+(?:\.\d+)?)\]/

1. Finds an opening bracket
2. Captures 1 or more digits
3. If there’s a dot it must be followed by 1 or more digits and captures this aswell
4. Finds the closing brackets

---

Update:

TASK ESTIMATE TOTAL changed from \[(\d+(?:\.\d+)?)\] to \[(\d+(?:\.\d+)?)\]

The first number will be stored in group1 and the second in group2.

s = "TASK REMAINING TOTAL changed from [0.0] to [1.5], TASK ESTIMATE TOTAL changed from [0.0] to [5.0], PLAN ESTIMATE added [5.0 Points]"
pattern = /TASK ESTIMATE TOTAL changed from \[(\d+(?:\.\d+)?)\] to \[(\d+(?:\.\d+)?)\]/

if s =~ pattern
   print "value1 = ", $1, ", value2 = ", $2
end

Output:

value1 = 0.0, value2 = 5.0

See it in action here: http://codepad.org/mYARv7Zr