regex to select text between 2 string?

Question

I've the following string

Month: March 2011
Month: January 2012
Month: December 2011

and I'd like to write a regex which select the name of the month (ie "March") only for 2011. This mean to select everything between the string "Month: " and the year "2011". The regex I made is

^(Month:)[A-Za-z0-9]+(2011)$

but it doesn't seem to work. What's wrong??? The results should be "March" and "December". Thanks!

Joseph Silber · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-20 20:20:14Z

2

Use a lookahead:

/[a-z]+(?= 2011)/ig

See it here in action: http://regex101.com/r/fE9lR9

Here's a JavaScript demo: http://jsfiddle.net/rZJur/

answered Feb 20, 2013 at 20:20

Joseph Silber

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2 Comments

Nicolaesse Over a year ago

it works good but it is a little bit hard for me (a real newbie for regex) to understand how it work. It takes everything behind " 2011" but how it excludes the "Month: "?

Joseph Silber Over a year ago

@Nicolaesse [a-z] only matches characters, so the space between the colon and the month name acts as the barrier.

desto · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-20 20:38:55Z

1

This expression works (look behind / look ahead) (?<=Month\:\s)(.+?)(?=\s2011).

Edit: With just Non-Capturing groups, this works: (?:Month\:\s)(.+?)(?:\s2011)

edited Feb 20, 2013 at 20:38

answered Feb 20, 2013 at 20:32

desto

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Comments

Michael · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-20 20:39:52Z

1

It isn't matching because you're not accounting for the white space in between the month and the year.

You could capture the month group after accounting for the space:

^(?:Month: )([A-Za-z]+)(?: 2011)$

Or you could use a look ahead/lookbehind combo:

(?<=^Month: )[A-Za-z]+(?= 2011$)

edited Feb 20, 2013 at 20:39

answered Feb 20, 2013 at 20:20

Michael

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2 Comments

Nicolaesse Over a year ago

sorry mate but neither the first nor the second regex works for me, have a try at the following regex101.com/r/jV2qU8

Michael Over a year ago

You're right, the second one didn't work, I fixed it. But the first one does work, you just need to pull the result from that grouping.

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