How do I make my regular expression match sets to the smallest degree?

0
votes

I've made a JavaScript regular expression to change instances of vertical-bar-sets for a LaTeX renderer, but when I have multiple such instances within the same paragraph it affects only the very first and very last bars, when I would prefer it to match each set of bars. The regular expression is:

replace(/\|(.*)\|/g, "\\textsc{$1}");

For example, with the following example:

Lorem |ipsum| dolor sit |amet|, consectetur |adipiscing| elit.

my regular expression produces:

Lorem \textsc{ipsum| dolor sit |amet|, consectetur |adipiscing} elit.

But I would prefer that it match all sets to the smallest degree possible, like so;

Lorem \textsc{ipsum} dolor sit \textsc{amet}, consectetur \textsc{adipiscing} elit.

How would I best correct my regular expression to solve this problem?

2
javascriptregex

2 Answers

5
votes

Another way is to add a single character to your original regex:

replace(/\|(.*?)\|/g, "\\textsc{$1}");

Everyone knows about * and +, but I am surprised how non-popular are their siblings *? and +?. They do the same thing except that they try to match as few as possible (non-greedy), while * and + always try to match as many as possible (greedy).

3
votes
   replace(/\|([^\|]+)\|/g, "\\textsc{$1}");