lang:regexp:lazy

About

A Lazy quantifier will match the shortest possible string. Match as few as possible, repeat as few times as possible whereas a Greedy quantifier will match the longest possible string.

Articles Related

Syntax

To make a match lazy, you add a question mark after the greedy quantifier.

List

Lazy Quantifier	Description
X??	X, once or not at all
X*?	X, zero or more times
X+?	X, one or more times
X{n}?	X, exactly n times
X{n,}?	X, at least n times
X{n,m}?	X, at least n but not more than m times

Example

Hello World

For example in the termhello

the greedy h.+l matches hell
but the lazy h.+?l matches hel.

HTML

<em>Hello World</em>

The greedy pattern <.+> will match Hello World
The lazy pattern <.+?> will match and

Documentation / Reference

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2301285/what-do-lazy-and-greedy-mean-in-the-context-of-regular-expressions

Table of Contents

Regular Expression - (Lazy|Reluctant) Quantifier