Regex matching question

Question

Alright, i promised myself i would learn Regex one day.. but today is not that day.

What is the correct expression for matching #_ (where _ is any character EXCEPT {)?

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Clarification:

I am working on a syntax highlighting system for Ruby and i am defining the rules for comments. The specification that the '{' not be included is to differentiate a comment from variables embedded in strings.

Answer 1

In PCRE syntax, #[^{]

Answer 2

You define a character class inside [ ] and negate with ^:

[^{] // i.e. a single character that is not {

If you add the hash mark in the beginning this results in:

#[^{] // i.e. # and then a single character that is not {

Answer 3

^#[^{]$

That's my answer if you meant to just match two characters.

Answer 4

This feels like a CS 101 homework question to me.

I suspect the right answer is to actually learn regular expressions today. What are you trying to match and why?

Answer 5

Rework is a tool that will help you interactively explore regular expressions.

Answer 6

Rubular is another great website for testing regular expressions.

Answer 7

If you're trying to do syntax highlighting, do yourself a favor and don't try to hack something together with regular expressions. You'll wind up piling hack on top of hack on top of hack until it's a scattered mess of almost-works and good-enoughs. Trust me, you'll hate yourself.

Go directly to using a grammar. Either by putting one straight out of the source code or finding an existing grammar on the Internet.

Answer 8

This site is great for help: txt2re

May not help with your problem but will in the future.