regular expressions: match x times OR y times

Question

Lets say I need to match a pattern if it appears 3 or 6 times in a row. The closest I can get is something like \\d{3,6} but that doesn\'t quite do what I need.

\'12

Answer 1

How about:

(\d\d\d){1,2}

although you'll also need guards at either end which depend on your RE engine, something like:

[^\d](\d\d\d){1,2}[^\d]

or:

^(\d\d\d){1,2}$