Question

I have the following string:

Message 1 [V.Variable1] Message 2 [F.Field1] Message 3

Why does it work well in ex1 and doesn’t in ex2?

var ex1 = Regex.Matches(message, @"\[F\.(?<name>.+)\]"); 
// the result `{[F.Field1]}` .. as expected


var ex2 = Regex.Matches(message, @"\[V\.(?<name>.+)\]");
// the result `{[V.Variable1] Message 2 [F.Field1]}` .. not as expected

When I’m trying to get the value of the group name, it gives the expected result in ex1 which is Field1 but it returns nothing in ex2

Any idea?

Answer 1

You have to make the .+ lazy: \[V\.(?<name>.+?)\]" (note the question mark). The second case doesn’t work because the + sign is greedy by default, and it will match as much as it can, in your case to the second closing square bracket from the second group.