VBScript.RegExp: exclude a particular word

tinfanide · #1 06-03-2012, 06:46 PM

This is not just an Excel VBA question, anyway, I'd post it here for help:

Code:

Dim str6 As String
str6 = "cat and dog"

With CreateObject("VBScript.RegExp")
    
    .Global = True
    .IgnoreCase = True
    .Pattern = "\b[^cat]{3}\b"
    For Each oMatch In .Execute(str6)
        Debug.Print oMatch
    Next oMatch

End With

''' output
''' dog

I want to have any words except "cat" but the above codes also exclude the word "and". How can I do a pattern that excludes a particular word instead of

Code:

.pattern = "[^cat]"

which just shows me

Quote:

(space)
n
d
(space)
d
o
g

in the console.

Colin Legg · #2 06-05-2012, 03:05 PM

Hi,

Here's one pattern (a negative lookahead) which will exclude dog:

Code:

.Pattern = "(?!dog\b)\b\w+"

tinfanide · #3 06-07-2012, 06:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Colin Legg

Hi,

Here's one pattern (a negative lookahead) which will exclude dog:

Code:

.Pattern = "(?!dog\b)\b\w+"

A lovely one. I missed the lookahead part when reading online tutorials of regexp.
But just wanna ask why
\b after dog is needed? To state the pattern ends by "dog" before the word boundary "\b"? And the \b outside before \w is used for what?

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