Home/ Questions/Q 948865
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Asked: 2026-05-15T23:18:48+00:00

I knew that we have something like this in the regular expression syntax world.

  • 0

I knew that we have something like this in the regular expression syntax world.

*The syntax is {min,max}, where min is a positive integer number indicating the minimum number of matches, and max is an integer equal to or greater than min indicating the maximum number of matches.

So {0,} is the same as *, and {1,} is the same as +*.

http://www.regular-expressions.info/repeat.html

But how can I use it in SQL Server Management Studio or Visual Studio’s “Find and Replace” window. I only find related Microsoft syntax in MSDN. Like:

[0-9]^4 matches any 4-digit sequence.

Share

Leave an answer

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    The Visual Studio regex implementation (in versions up until Visual Studio 2010) is a fairly nonstandard one to say the least, and it doesn’t have this feature. You can only spell it out:

    * or @: Match zero or more of the preceding expression

    + or #: Match one or more of the preceding expression

    ^n: Match exactly n repetitions of the preceding expression

    So for A{2,4} you’d have to use A^4|A^3|A^2 (see polygenelubricant’s comment for an explanation why you need to do it in descending order).

    More recent versions of Visual Studio support the entire set of .NET regexes.

    • 0