I need help setting up a regex that has a very specific start, with a capturing group, and then other groups that can be in any order.

Example:

c/category-name/f-brand-super-brand/f-hair-porosity-POR

category => category-name

f-brand => super-brand

f-hair-porosity => POR

c/exampleC/f-brand-brandY/f-hair-porosity-my-porosity

category => exampleC

f-brand => brandY

f-hair-porosity => my-porosity

This is how far I've come: (f-(brand|hair-porosity|shampoo-type)?-?(.*?)(\/|$))

By using this regex I can find the matches I need and it works in any given f-xxx order.

However the problem I am facing is that I can't capture the category name. All my attempts result in either capturing just the first f-xxx or the last f-xxx.

Any ideas?

This will go in a wordpress add_rewrite_url, so I need it to be a one liner.

Thanks!

CodePudding user response：

The category prefix has a different pattern, ending with a forward slash (c/), so you should add an option for that.

I would suggest this regular expression:

(\bc\/|\bf-brand-|\bf-hair-porosity-|\bf-shampoo-type-)((?:(?!\/f-).)*)

This will capture two groups:

* the prefix
* the value

It will allow / to occur inside a single match when it is not followed by ´f-´. This is where a subcategory could be included in the category match.