`regex{n,}?` == `regex{n}`?

Question

-edit- NOTE the ? at the end of .{2,}?

I found out you can write

.{2,}?

Isnt that exactly the same as bel

Answer 1

No. {2,} means two times or more while {2} means exactly two times. Quantifiers are greedy by default, so given the string foo you would get foo if you use .{2,}, but fo if you use .{2,}? because you made it lazy. However, the latter is allowed to match more than two times if necessary, but .{2} always means exactly two characters.

So if you have the string test123 and the pattern .{2,}?\d, you would get test1 because it has to match up to four characters so the \d can also match.