How can I get only the middle part of a combined name with PCRE regex?

name: 211103_TV_storyname_TYPE

result: storyname

I have used this single line: .(\d) .(_TV_) to remove the first part: 211103_TV_

Another idea is to use (_TYPE)$ but the problem is that I don´t have in all variations of names a space to declare a second word to use the ^ for the first word and $ for the second.

The variation of the combined name is fix for _TYPE and the TV. The numbers are changing according to the date. And the storyname is variable. Any ideas?

Thanks

CodePudding user response：

You could match as least as possible chars after _TV_ until you match _TYPE

\d_TV_\K.*?(?=_TYPE)

• \d_TV_ Match a digit and _TV_
• \K Forget what is matched until now
• .*? Match as least as possible characters
• (?=_TYPE) Assert _TYPE to the right

Regex demo

Another option without a non greedy quantifier, and leaving out the digit at the start:

_TV_\K[^_]* (?>_(?!TYPE)[^_]*)*(?=_TYPE)

• _TV_ Match literally
• \K[^_]* Forget what is matched until now and optionally match any char except _
• (?>_(?!TYPE)[^_]*)* Only allow matching _ when not directly followed by TYPE
• (?=_TYPE) Assert _TYPE to the right

Regex demo

Edit

If you want to replace the 2 parts, you can use an alternation and replace with an empty string.

If it should be at the start and the end of the string, you can prepend ^ and append $ to the pattern.

\b\d{6}_TV_|_TYPE\b

• \b\d{6}_TV_ A word boundary, match 6 digits and _TV_
• | Or
• _TYPE\b Match _TYPE followed by a word boundary

Regex demo

CodePudding user response：

With your shown samples, please try following regex, this creates one capturing group which contains matched values in it.

.*?_TV_([^_]*)(?=_TYPE)

OR(adding a small variation of above solution with fourth bird's nice suggestion), following is without lazy match .*? unlike above:

_TV_([^_]*)(?=_TYPE)

Here is the Online demo for above regex

Explanation: Adding detailed explanation for above.

.*?_      ##Using Lazy match to match till 1st occurrence of _ here.
TV_       ##Matching TV_ here.
([^_]*)   ##Creating 1st capturing group which has everything before next occurrence of _ here.
(?=_TYPE) ##Making sure previous values are followed by _TYPE here.