Regular expression listing all possibilities

Question

Given a regular expression, how can I list all possible matches? For example: AB[CD]1234, I want it to return a list like: ABC1234 ABD1234

I searched the web, but co

Answer 1

The reason you haven't found anything is probably because this is a problem of serious complexity given the amount of combinations certain expressions would allow. Some regular expressions could even allow infite matches:

Consider following expressions:

AB[A-Z0-9]{1,10}1234

AB.*1234

I think your best bet would be to create an algorithm yourself based on a small subset of allowed patterns. In your specific case, I would suggest to use a more naive approach than a regular expression.