Stop RegEx search after finding a specific character

[TTM 1895]

Salutations, oh wise and venerable prophets of knowledge :)

I have a .txt file that I have to open every day in N++ and must copy / paste data that occurs between brackets, i.e. [ stuff I have to copy must not include these brackets ]

I have tried the following regex’s:
(?<=[)[^}]+(?=]) — it gives me what I want – highlighted text in between brackets – but it goes to the very last ] in the entire document
[([^]]+)([^]]+)] – it gives me what I want – it highlights only to the first ] it finds, but it includes the brackets [ ]

What I would like, please, is a way that I can get both of those things in 1 expression, if possible

The data I collect is in this format:
::Ihavechickenlegs::
[I want to select the text
on the following lines
after the label listed above]

==================================
::Iampastylikedough::
[This stinks to
high heaven and I want
a Big Mac]

[Claudia Frank]

@TTM-1895

I assume you are looking for (?is)\[(?>(?!<\]).)*?\]
I can’t get the credits for this as it is just a modification from one of the great
posts from @guy038, but I wasn’t able to find the original post, the ones with the
<record> solution, otherwise I would have pointed to it as it also had a good explanation
what exactly it is doing.

Cheers
Claudia

[TTM 1895]

Thank you for the quick response :)

When I plugged in the expression you gave me, it had the same effect as my expression #2… it still includes the brackets in the highlight. I would like it to highlight everything ‘in between’ the brackets, as it does in my expression #1, but stop at the first ] it finds.

Any other ideas?

Thank you for your time and efforts. :)

[Claudia Frank]

@TTM-1895

I hope I finally understood your request, what about this (?is)(?<=\[)(?>(?!<\]).)*?(?=\]) regex.

By the way, what do you mean by it stops after it found the first ] ?
Something you could use to replace the first block of data in a couple of files
or just in terms of selecting one block of data after the other?

Cheers
Claudia

[TTM 1895]

Eureka! That last expression you gave me was perfect!

I guess I wasn’t explaining accurately enough, but you sussed it out and gave me precisely what I needed.

Thank you tremendously for your expertise and assistance. :)

Be well… and Cheers!

[guy038]

Hello, @ttm-1895, @claudia-frank and All,

I think that the regex can be shortened, as below :

(?s)(?<=\[).+?(?=\])

Notes :

• The (?s) modifier means that the dot regex character ( . ) represents any single char ( either a standard one or an EOL one )

• The (?i) modifier is not necessary, as no letters or letter range(s) are involved in the discussed regexes

• The main part of the regex is the .+? syntax, which catches the smallest NON-empty range of any character, which, either :

  • is preceded by a literal [ symbol, due to the (?<=\[) positive look-behind structure

  • is followed with a literal ] symbol, due to the (?=\]) positive look-ahead structure

• Both [ and ] symbols must be escaped, with the \ symbol, to be interpreted as literals

Cheers,

guy038