Another URL regex

I need to build a Regex (POSIX BRE) to capture a parameter
from the
following string
GET /server/app.pl?
open=512&ID=233&stuff=Page&pid=29&mode=2&
;userid=U5715&cached=true&test=5&bla=xxx
HTTP/1.1


When I use the following

^.*userid=(.*)&[a-z0-9].*$

I get U5715&cached=true&test=5

But I only want U5715


What am I doing wrong?


Thanks for your help.


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On Dec 19, 5:41 am, birkey <bir...gmail.com> wrote:
> I need to build a Regex (POSIX BRE) to capture a
parameter from the
> following string
> GET /server/app.pl?
>
open=512&ID=233&stuff=Page&pid=29&mode=2&
;userid=U5715&cached=true&test=5&bla=xxx
> HTTP/1.1
>
> When I use the following
>
> ^.*userid=(.*)&[a-z0-9].*$
>
> I get U5715&cached=true&test=5
>
> But I only want U5715
>
> What am I doing wrong?
>
> Thanks for your help.

birkey,

The problem is the '.*' after 'userid=' in your pattern. 
'.' matches
anything but a newline, and the '*' quantifier matches as
much as it
possibly can.  This means it will match to the last '&'
character in
the string, which is what you are seeing.  You might have
better luck
if you are more specific in your pattern.  You can use a
negated
bracket expression (similar to a character class in more
common
regular expression syntax) to match what can't be in a
userid:
'[^&]*'.  This will match anything that isn't a '&',
which will stop
matching when you want it to stop.

I hope this helps.

Jeff
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That's the ticket!

I thaught that a '.*' would stop when it hit the first
literal '&'
I was wrong.


Thanks for the help


On Dec 18, 8:16 pm, Jeff <jeff.hill...gmail.com> wrote:
> On Dec 19, 5:41 am, birkey <bir...gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > I need to build a Regex (POSIX BRE) to capture a
parameter from the
> > following string
> > GET /server/app.pl?
> >
open=512&ID=233&stuff=Page&pid=29&mode=2&
;userid=U5715&cached=true&test=5&bl-a=xxx
> > HTTP/1.1
>
> > When I use the following
>
> > ^.*userid=(.*)&[a-z0-9].*$
>
> > I get U5715&cached=true&test=5
>
> > But I only want U5715
>
> > What am I doing wrong?
>
> > Thanks for your help.
>
> birkey,
>
> The problem is the '.*' after 'userid=' in your
pattern.  '.' matches
> anything but a newline, and the '*' quantifier matches
as much as it
> possibly can.  This means it will match to the last
'&' character in
> the string, which is what you are seeing.  You might
have better luck
> if you are more specific in your pattern.  You can use
a negated
> bracket expression (similar to a character class in
more common
> regular expression syntax) to match what can't be in a
userid:
> '[^&]*'.  This will match anything that isn't a
'&', which will stop
> matching when you want it to stop.
>
> I hope this helps.
>
> Jeff- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
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