Question

regmatches(number, gregexpr(pattern = “2.?2”,text = number)) Is this an example of non-greedy quantifier? If yes, then why and what would be the equivalent greedy quantifier?

Answer 1

No. This is an example of a non-greedy quantifier. An equivalent greedy approach would be – regmatches(number, gregexpr(pattern = "2.*2",text = number)) . Suppose that for a given number, val1 = 2020000200 The greedy approach would initiate from the first digit ‘2’. It then moves ahead and encounters the second digit ‘2’. It keeps searching for another ‘2’ digit which it also encounters. However, it does not find any more digits after that and hence, it returns the value: 20200002. A non-greedy approach on the other hand, stops at the first match and returns us the value of 202.