Forums Scripts & Popups regex help

//var %y,%x = $regsub(a-b-c-d*a,/([^-a-z]|\*[a-z]+?)/g,,%y) | echo -a %y
i'm trying to remove everything in the text except "-" and the letters between a-z
but if there is a * in front of the letters it will remove all the letters after it until the last(i used +? to match as less as possible), so my code should return a-b-c-d

This is happening because when $regsub reaches the * char, the subpattern that matches it is this: [^-a-z]
ie the first subpattern in the (). So, it removes the star and moves on. It won't remove the last "a" because the * char was dealt with in the previous run. Now, the only thing $regsub sees is an "a", which of course does not remove. This is the nature of consuming subpatterns, like (pattern), (?:pattern). Non-consuming subpatterns are the assertions: negative/positive lookahead/lookbehind assertions, the \b etc.

There are two ways to do what you want: the simplest one is to just change the order of the subpatterns:
//var %y,%x = $regsub(a-b-c-d*a,/(\*[a-z]+?|[^-a-z])/g,,%y) | echo -a %y

Another way would be to insert a positive lookbehind assertion in front of the second subpattern:
//var %y,%x = $regsub(a-b-c-d*a,/([^-a-z]|(?<=\*)[a-z]+)/g,,%y) | echo -a %y

i don't understand it
why when u change the order it works ? what's the problem with mine ?
i read what u said and still couldn't understand the problem with the \*

Whenever you want to include the '-' character in a character class, it MUST be the last character. I'm not saying this is the only problem in your expression, it's just the first thing that caught my attention.

[^-a-z] bad
[^a-z-] good

- Raccoon

man.txt:
The minus (hyphen) character can be used to specify a range
of characters in a character class. For example, [d-m]
matches any letter between d and m, inclusive. If a minus
character is required in a class, it must be escaped with a
backslash or appear in a position where it cannot be inter-
preted as indicating a range, typically as the first or last
character in the class.

plz tell me what's the problem i can't figure it out

I don't think I can do any better than my first post...

Maybe it hasn't been clear to you that PCRE parses both the input string and the regex pattern from left to right. As a result of that behaviour, all characters up to and including the "*" (ie the red characters in the string: a-b-c-d*a) are matched by the first subpattern [^-a-z] repeatedly (because of the //g). So, the second subpattern \*[a-z] never gets the chance to match "*a", because "*" was consumed in the previous run by [^-a-z].

!
thanks alot man, i get it!