Regex not stopping at first space

Question

Trying to create a pattern that matches an opening bracket and gets everything between it and the next space it encounters. I thought \\[.*\\s would achieve th

Answer 1

I suggest using \[\S*(?=\s).

• \[: Match a [ character.
• \S*: Match 0 or more non-space characters.
• (?=\s): Match a space character, but don't include it in the pattern. This feature is called a zero-width positive look-ahead assertion and makes sure you pattern only matches if it is followed by a space, so it won't match at the end of line.

You might get away with \[\S*\s if you don't care about groups and want to include the final space, but you would have to clarify exactly which patterns need matching and which should not.