How can I express a list containing named groups in regex?

Question

I currently have the following regex:

P:(?<ParentName>[A-Z,a-z,0-9,-,_]+)-(?<ParentAge>[A-Z,a-z,0-9,-,_]+)
C:(?<Child>[A-Z,a-z,0-9,-,_]+)

which matches with

P:Bob-30
C:Jane

However, I would like be able to express a regex matching with:

P:Jack-35
C:John
C:Marie

I tried this by adding []+ arround the second part:

P:(?<ParentName>[A-Z,a-z,0-9,-,_]+)-(?<ParentAge>[A-Z,a-z,0-9,-,_]+)
[C:(?<Child>[A-Z,a-z,0-9,-,_]+)]+

However this doesn't work and gives an error: 'unmatched parenthesis )'for the last parenthesis.

Anyone an idea how I can express this?

Thank you!

Update The problems seems to be the [] inside []. Working regex for only 1 "C:.."-line:

P:(?<ParentName>[A-Za-z0-9-_]+)-(?<ParentAge>[A-Za-z0-9-_]+)
C:[A-Za-z0-9-_]+\n

Not working regex for multiple "C:.."-lines:

P:(?<ParentName>[A-Za-z0-9-_]+)-(?<ParentAge>[A-Za-z0-9-_]+)
[C:[A-Za-z0-9-_]+\n]+

The first [ in the second line matches with the first ], while it should be the second ].

@WiktorStribiżew yes I remembered that :) [Here](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5367369/named-capturing-groups-in-javascript-regex) However it's not widely supported — Pointy, Apr 19 '19 at 12:34
Thanks! but the named groups work ;). it only gives problems when trying to express them inside a list — Gybelle, Apr 19 '19 at 12:35
Those commas in your `[ ]` subexpressions seem odd to me; you don't need commas to separate character ranges, and the commas will be taken as part of the allowed character set. — Pointy, Apr 19 '19 at 12:37
Also the `C:` thing involves `[ ]` inside `[ ]`; what do you intend that to mean? — Pointy, Apr 19 '19 at 12:39
Woops, you're right about the commas. Updated my question with more details about the []. @Pointy — Gybelle, Apr 19 '19 at 12:44
Should C:John and C:Marie in the same group as Child like this: https://regex101.com/r/IM0HIn/2 — The fourth bird, Apr 19 '19 at 13:17
I don't know of any regex syntax that allows nested `[ ]` groups; I can't even imagine what that would mean. A `[ ]` subexpression matches a single character (or not). — Pointy, Apr 19 '19 at 13:19

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 19 '19 at 13:23

To get C:John and C:Marie in the Child group, you could capture a repeating group inside the child group:

(?<Child>(?:C:[A-Za-z0-9,_]+(?:\s|$))+)

(?<Child> Named group
(?: Non capturing group
- C:[A-Za-z0-9,_]+(?:\s|$) Match C: followed by any listed in the character class and then match either a whitespace char or the end of the string
)+ Close capturing group and repeat 1+ times
) Close named group

Your pattern might look like:

P:(?<ParentName>[A-Za-z0-9,_]+)-(?<ParentAge>[A-Za-z0-9,_]+)\s*(?<Child>(?:C:[A-Za-z0-9,_]+(?:\s|$))+)

Note that the character class can be updated to [A-Za-z0-9,_]+ where you can list each charcter one time.

1 Answers1