How do I tell RegEx (.NET version) to get the smallest valid match instead of the largest?
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How do I tell RegEx (.NET version) to get the smallest valid match instead of the largest?
For a regular expression like
.*or.+, append a question mark (.*?or.+?) to match as few characters as possible. To optionally match a section(?:blah)?but without matching unless absolutely necessary, use something like(?:blah){0,1}?. For a repeating match (either using{n,}or{n,m}syntax) append a question mark to try to match as few as possible (e.g.{3,}?or{5,7}?).The documentation on regular expression quantifiers may also be helpful.