I agree that the * (0 or more) should be avoided unless needed but in this case I felt it was. There may or may not be a space. There may be more than one space. There may be a space character being seen as a space (like a tab). Because we don't know if a space will actually exist, the * is needed. The +? (1 or more but as few as needed) assumes that at least one space exists.
As a rule I don't over-worry about using * when it's used with a \s (space) unless I really have to. On Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 12:20 AM, andy matthews <li...@commadelimited.com>wrote: > > For future reference you should avoid using * where possible as it can > easily lead to overmatching. Even using + would be better although both + > and * alone are greedy matches. An even better solution would be to use a > lazy match like so: > > \)\s+?\) > > The ? following the + tells the regex engine to match as little as > possible. > > > > andy > > -----Original Message----- > From: Rick Colman [mailto:rcol...@cox.net] > Sent: Monday, November 22, 2010 9:59 PM > To: cf-talk > Subject: Re: REGEX hell > > > This worked!! TNX. > > On 11/22/2010 6:04 PM, Michael Dinowitz wrote: > > Are you sure it's a space and not 2 spaces? Or a tab? Try using \s* to > > indicate that there may be one or more space characters. > > > > \)\s*\) > > > > <cfset cleandata2 = REReplaceNoCase(cleandata1, '\)\s*\)', ')', 'all')> > > > > On Mon, Nov 22, 2010 at 8:48 PM, Rick Colman<rcol...@cox.net> wrote: > > > >> I am trying to replace two trailing parens )) with a single paren. > >> > >> here is a sample string: > >> > >> (K AAA) (N AAC) (E GAA) ) > >> > >> looks like there is a space in between the two )), so I tried: > >> > >> <cfset cleandata2 = #REReplaceNoCase( cleandata1,'\)\ \)',')','all')#> > >> > >> but this is not working. > >> > >> Any ideas as two what is wrong greatly appreciated. > >> > >> > >> > > > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:339446 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/unsubscribe.cfm
