Michael Glaesemann wrote: > However, as you point out, Postgres doesn't appear to take this into > account: > > postgres=# select regexp_replace('oooZQoooAoooQooQooQooo', $r$(Z(Q) > [^Q]*A.*(\2))$r$, $s$X$s$); > regexp_replace > ---------------- > oooXooo > (1 row) > > postgres=# select regexp_replace('oooZQoooAoooQooQooQooo', $r$(Z(Q) > [^Q]*A.*?(\2))$r$, $s$X$s$); > regexp_replace > ---------------- > oooXooo > (1 row)
I think the reason for this is that the first * is greedy and thus the entire expression is considered greedy. The fact that you've made the second * non-greedy does not ungreedify the RE ... Note the docs say: The above rules associate greediness attributes not only with individual quantified atoms, but with branches and entire REs that contain quantified atoms. What that means is that the matching is done in such a way that the branch, or whole RE, matches the longest or shortest possible substring as a whole. It's late here so I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for: alvherre=# select regexp_replace('oooZQoooAoooQooQooQooo', $r$(Z(Q)[^Q]*?A.*(\2))$r$, $s$X$s$); regexp_replace ---------------- oooXooQooQooo (1 fila) (Obviously the non-greediness has moved somewhere else) :-( -- Alvaro Herrera http://www.CommandPrompt.com/ PostgreSQL Replication, Consulting, Custom Development, 24x7 support -- Sent via pgsql-hackers mailing list (pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-hackers