regex : how to match word ending with parentheses “)”

Question

I want to match string ending with \')\' . I use pattern :

 \"[)]\\b\" or \".*[)]\\b\"

It should match the string :

x=main2         


        

Answer 1

The \b word boundary is ambiguous: after a word character, it requires that the next character must a non-word one or the end of string. When it stands after a non-word char (like )) it requires a word character (letter/digit/underscore) to appear right after it (not the end of the string here!).

So, there are three solutions:

• Use \B (a non-word boundary): .*[)]\B (see demo) that will not allow matching if the ) is followed with a word character
• Use .*[)]$ with MULTILINE mode (add (?m) at the start of the pattern or add the /m modifier, see demo)
• Emulate the multiline mode with an alternation group: .*[)](\r?\n|$) (see demo)