we're using this regex to filter a ticket number from the subject.
This is the regex we're using: \\[\\#(.*)\\]
The subject usually looks like this: "[#20160708-0020] Hello blah blah"
Regex get's us "20160708-0020" and we can use that further.
Somebody from the company started writing mails like this: "[#20160708-0020] Hello [SQL] blah blah"
So the regex will get us "20160708-0020] Hello [SQL" which obviously isn't correct.
Is there any way to tell the regex to stop after the first match? Thanks! :)
Answer
https://regex101.com/r/sY4pG6/1
\[\#(.*?)\]
The * in your regex is greedy. It will capture as much as possible.
The *? above is lazy. It will capture as little as possible. This will make your regex stop after that first match.