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Asked: 2026-05-11T09:56:47+00:00

I have a regular expression that matches x OR y condition. Sometimes those matches

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I have a regular expression that matches x OR y condition. Sometimes those matches overlap and I want to give preference to one of the conditions.

Here is my test case.

Regex:

X[^\w]*\>|\>[^\w]*X

Input:

Soup > X > Alphabet
Alphabet Soup > X
X > Alphabet Soup

Matches:

Highlighted match results http://i.friendfeed.com/b55db94551503bf13d16f944fc56d9ff56676b4f

The first highlighted match (yellow) should be X > instead of > X but I’m not sure how to give preference to one of the matches given an overlap.

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1 Answer

  1. This should do it:

    X[^\w]*>|>[^\w]*X(?![^\w]*>)

    A negative look-ahead after the low-prioritized alternative. When it finds '> X', but there is a ' >' after it, it should be skipped in favor of 'X >'.

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