Question

Writing a quick app to help me filter text files.

I’m reading in a text file line-by-line, and need to match a series of characters that looks like this: 090129 YBB 100

The first set, 090129, will be 6 numbers (0-9). Followed by a space, and then YBB – always. After that, another space, then 2-3 numbers (0-9).

This pattern will always be the first part of the string as well.

Here’s my hack at it:

^[0-9][0-9][0-9] (YBB) [0-9][0-9][0-9]\b 

Of course, doesn’t work… but I’m a regex noob. Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Here goes:

^([\d]{6})\s(?:YBB)\s([\d]{2,3})\b 

Explanation:

a) Start at start of line. b) Match 6 digits. Save into backref 1. c) Match a space. d) Match ‘YBB’. Don’t save into backref. e) Match a space. f) Match 2-3 digits. Save into backref 2.

Of course, it’s important to know which part of this pattern you want to retrieve into a backreference. If you provide that info, I can edit my post.