I have simple problem with regex, but I haven't idea for resolve them. I have string (in grey this is a label):

cccc:ddddd bbbb:fgggg aaa aa:ddd ddd cccc:ggggggg

and regex

/(aaa aa|bbbb|cccc)+:([\sa-zA-Z]*)(?:$|\s)/ig

After parsing string 'label' aaa aa is ignoring, because have space and is taken to second match. I want to do first match labels (with white space or not), colon and anything (with spaces) after insert into second match to next 'label' or end line.

Any suggestions?

I have simple problem with regex, but I haven't idea for resolve them. I have string (in grey this is a label):

cccc:ddddd bbbb:fgggg aaa aa:ddd ddd cccc:ggggggg

and regex

/(aaa aa|bbbb|cccc)+:([\sa-zA-Z]*)(?:$|\s)/ig

https://regex101./r/mR3vK5/1

After parsing string 'label' aaa aa is ignoring, because have space and is taken to second match. I want to do first match labels (with white space or not), colon and anything (with spaces) after insert into second match to next 'label' or end line.

Any suggestions?

• javascript
• regex

3 Answers 3

If you know all the keys you may use them inside the positive lookahead and match the values with lazy dot:

/(aaa aa|bbbb|cccc):(.*?)(?=$|\s+(?:aaa aa|bbbb|cccc))/gi

See the JS demo:

var block = "aaa aa|bbbb|cccc";
var rx = RegExp("(" + block + "):(.*?)(?=$|\\s+(?:" + block + "))", "ig");
var s = "cccc:ddddd bbbb:fgggg aaa aa:ddd ddd cccc:ggggggg";
while ((m = rx.exec(s)) !== null) {
    document.body.innerHTML += m[1] + ": " + m[2] + "<br/>";
}

Pattern explanation:

• (aaa aa|bbbb|cccc) - either of aaa aa or bbbb or cccc
• : - a literal colon
• (.*?) - Group 2 matching 0+ any chararacter other than a newline as few as possible up to the first...
• (?=$|\s+(?:aaa aa|bbbb|cccc)) - (a positive lookahead that limits the .*? matching)
  • $ - ... end of string
  • | - or...
  • \s+ - one or more whitespaces followed with...
    • (?:aaa aa|bbbb|cccc) - any of the three alternatives (inside a non-capturing group used for grouping only, not capturing)

Well so this will do what you want

/(aaa aa|bbbb|cccc)+:(\s*[a-zA-Z]*)(?:$|\s)/ig

But, it is highly contrived, given the question.

If you are trying to get just the labels (even if the key has a space), here's something I quickly typed up: https://regex101./r/jJ9iI1/3

(?:^|\s)([^:]+):

It starts off with a ^ or \s (beginning or space character). Then it simply captures every character (except the colon) leading up to a colon.

...make sure the g for global is turned on