Question

I have the following Regexp to create a hash of values by separating a string at a semicolon:

Hash["photo:chase jarvis".scan(/(.*)\:(.*)/)] 
// {'photo' => 'chase jarvis'}

But I also want to be able to have URL’s in the string and recognize it so it maintains the URL part in the value side of the hash i.e:

Hash["photo:http://www.chasejarvis.com".scan(/(.*)\:(.*)/)] 
// Results in {'photo:http' => '//www.chasejarvis.com'}

I want, of course:

Hash["photo:chase jarvis".scan(/ ... /)] 
// {'photo' => 'http://www.chasejarvis.com'}

Answer 1

If you only want to match up to first colon you could change (.*)\:(.*) to ([^:]*)\:(.*).

Alternatively, you could make it a non-greedy match, but I prefer saying “not colon”.