Question

I’m trying to create a regex which will match either one of the following –

FVAL(A)
FVAL("A")
FVAL(A,B)
FVAL("A",B)
FVAL("A","B")
FVAL(A,"B")
FVAL(A,B,C)
FVAL("A",B,C)
FVAL("A","B",C)
FVAL("A","B","C")
FVAL("A",B,"C")
FVAL(A,"B","C")

Regex –

FVAL\s*\(\s*["*]\s*\w+\s*["*]\s*,*\s*["*]\s*\w+\s*["*]\s*,*\s*,*\s*["*]\s*\w+\s*["*]\s*\)

This regex is supposed to return all and any form of the function that is used.

For e.g. –

If match string were – FVAL(A,"B")+5 then match group should be FVAL(A,"B")

P.S. – I’m ignoring white spaces in match string, but they can be there.

Answer 1

Your expression is way too complicated.

FVAL\("?\w+"?(?:,"?\w+"?){0,2}\)

Breakdown:

FVAL         # "FVAL"
\(           # "("
"?           # an optional double quote
\w+          # at least one word character
"?           # an optional double quote
(?:          # group
  ,          #   a comma
  "?\w+"?    #   quote - word character - quote
){0,2}       # end group, repeat 0-2 times
\)           # ")"

Insert whitespace \s into the expression where you see fit.