What is the regular expression to match FS00000 were the 0s can be a number from 0-9. There can only be 5 numbers following the FS.
+8
A:
Try
FS\d{5}
\d means any digit, and {5} means exactly 5 of them.
Michael Myers
2009-06-23 15:18:51
shouldn't you add something like \D to prevent a sixth digit?
tanascius
2009-06-23 15:23:07
\d will match any Unicode Decimal Digit (http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/category/Nd/list.htm) if used in .NET
VVS
2009-06-23 15:25:32
This is the most basic form, and yes, it could be improved. Like for instance, I could have surrounded it with ^$ -- but the question was so vague that I didn't want to add possibly extraneous elements.
Michael Myers
2009-06-23 15:28:05
you are right - the question can be interpreted as "six digits are not possible"
tanascius
2009-06-23 15:30:54
+9
A:
^FS\d{5}$
which matches the line start (^ - you may not need this), then FS, then a digit \d 5 times {5}, then the line end $ (again, you may not need this, but you'd then have to protect against a sixth digit following).
You don't specify which language/regexp, but the above is pretty generic.
EDIT: You can provide word boundary markers instead of line start/end markers, which is a little more generic. \b will mark a word boundary (in Perl - see Perlre - but equivalents exist in other languages)
Brian Agnew
2009-06-23 15:19:12
How about adding word boundaries instead of the start-of-line and end-of-line markers?
Huppie
2009-06-23 15:33:23
A shameless attempt at votemongering! But that would make sense. Done
Brian Agnew
2009-06-23 15:39:00
For Perl, you want \b instead of \w and \W (which match word or non-word characters, not a boundary). Check the reference you linked to. :)
iammichael
2009-06-23 15:42:51
A:
^FS[0-9]{5}$
will do the trick.
This matches any string that begins (^) with FS followed by 5 times 0-9 and then ends ($).
Don't use \d in this case since it will also match Unicode Decimal Digits (at least in .NET).
VVS
2009-06-23 15:28:03
+6
A:
If the exact word should be matched don't forget word boundaries:
\bFS\d{5}\b
Depending on the language chosen the syntax for a word boundary might differ.
Huppie
2009-06-23 15:32:11
+1
A:
Note, that if FS00000 is part of other text and doesn't occupy the entire line, you should surround the FS\d{5} pattern by word boundaries rather than line boundaries:
\bFS\d{5}\b
Helen
2009-06-23 15:36:23