find string pattern in strings ( 'ab*d' in 'abcd')

Hello,

I want to check if there is a string pattern within a string. The pattern may look like this: 'ab*d', where * could be one or more charakters or none. So if the pattern would be 'abQWEd' or 'abd' I still want to have a positive feedback. Do you know how to do this?

Thanks!

Answer 1

[Elias Gule]

try this:

pattern = 'ab.*d';     %%Pattern to match
textstr = 'sqthabVUYd';    %%Input string
match   = regexp(textstr,pattern,'match');

this will match 'abVUYd' in the input string.

[Jannis Maq]

Perfect, exactly what I was looking for! Thank you very much.

[Jannis Maq]

Ah, I was too fast. Is there a way to make ".*" not include all charakters? If there is a "n" or a "N" it shall not work. Do you also know how to solve this?

Answer 2

[Elias Gule]

I presume that you want it to work for all patterns 'ab.*d' that don't contain the letter "n" or "N", such that "abCDnMMd" does not produce a valid match while "abCDMMdn" does. If that's the case then, try this pattern:

pattern = 'ab((\W*[a-mA-Mo-zO-Z0-9]*\W*)*)d';     %%Pattern to match

*Note:

\W* => zero or more non-word characters

[a-mA-Mo-zO-Z]* => a group of zero or more upper or lowercase letters of the alphabet excluding "n" or "N".

[Jannis Maq]

Thanks for your reply. Your presumption is right!

But the code doesn't work exactly how I want.

test='((\W*[a-mA-Mo-zO-Z0-9]*\W*)*)6';
regexp(test,'n6','match')

 ans = 
     {}     %%Expected answer

 regexp(test,'6','match')
 ans = 
    '6'     %%Expected answer

 regexp(test,'ABC6','match')

 ans = 
     {}     %%Not expected :(

But when I put the inputs this way

 regexp('ABC6',test,'match')
 ans = 
    'ABC6'     %Expected answer
 %%But then the problem is:

 regexp('n6',test,'match')
 ans = 
    '6'     % Not expected, because of the 'n'