Simple Regular Expression Examples

Now, we have three operators and a small framework. After all this theory, you might wonder if it’s possible for us to solve any problems. Yes, of course we can. Here are some examples:

All binary strings with no more than one zero:

'01101'.match /1*(0|)1*/ #=> #<MatchData "011">
'0111'.match /1*(0|)1*/ #=> #<MatchData "0111">
'1101'.match /1*(0|)1*/ #=> #<MatchData "1101">
'11010'.match /1*(0|)1*/ #=> #<MatchData "1101">

All binary strings with at least one pair of consecutive zeroes:

'101001'.match /(1|0)*00(1|0)*/ #=> #<MatchData "101001">
'10101'.match /(1|0)*00(1|0)*/ #=> nil
'1010100'.match /(1|0)*00(1|0)*/ #=> #<MatchData "1010100">

All binary strings that have no pair of consecutive zeros:

'1010100'.match /1*(011*)*(0|)/ #=> #<MatchData "101010">
'101001'.match /1*(011*)*(0|)/ #=> #<MatchData "1010">
'0010101'.match /1*(011*)*(0|)/ #=> #<MatchData "0">
'0110101'.match /1*(011*)*(0|)/ #=> #<MatchData "0110101">

All binary strings ending in 01:

'110101'.match /(0|1)*01/ #=> #<MatchData "110101">
'11010'.match /(0|1)*01/ #=> #<MatchData "1101">
'1'.match /(0|1)*01/ #=> nil
'01'.match /(0|1)*01/ #=> #<MatchData "01">

All binary strings not ending in 01:

'010'.match /(0|1)*(0|11)|1|0|/ #=> #<MatchData "010">
'011'.match /(0|1)*(0|11)|1|0|/ #=> #<MatchData "011">
''.match /(0|1)*(0|11)|1|0|/ #=> #<MatchData "">
'1'.match /(0|1)*(0|11)|1|0|/ #=> #<MatchData "1">
'01'.match /(0|1)*(0|11)|1|0|/ #=> #<MatchData "0">
'101'.match /(0|1)*(0|11)|1|0|/ #=> #<MatchData "10">

All binary strings that have every pair of consecutive zeroes before every pair of consecutive ones:

'0110101'.match /0*(100*)*1*(011*)*(0|)/ #=> #<MatchData "0110101">
'00101100'.match /0*(100*)*1*(011*)*(0|)/ #=> #<MatchData "0010110">
'11001011'.match /0*(100*)*1*(011*)*(0|)/ #=> #<MatchData "110">
'1100'.match /0*(100*)*1*(011*)*(0|)/ #=> #<MatchData "110">
'0011'.match /0*(100*)*1*(011*)*(0|)/ #=> #<MatchData "0011">

See if you can find even better regular expressions that solve these problems. Remember that there’re an infinite number of synonyms to each regular expression.