Mark words in notepad++ including dash (-)

Question

I would like to mark in Notepad++ the sql scripts in a text log. The sql files have this format in the text:

AAAAAAAA.BBBBBBBBBBB.sql

So what I execute is this sentence in search menu:

\w*.sql

As I should get BBBBBBBBBBB.sql. The point is that in some script names there are dashes (-), and when that happens I dont get the whole name, but just the end after the last dash.

For example, in:

AAAAAAAA.BBBBB-CCCCCCC.sql

I would like to get BBBBB-CCCCCCC.sql, but I just get CCCCCCC.sql

Is there any possible formula to get them?

Answer 1

If the match can not start and end with a hyphen:

\w+(?:-\w+)*\.sql

• \w+ Match 1+ word characters
• (?:-\w+)* Optionally match - and 1+ word characters
• \.sql Match .sql

See a regex demo.

Note that in your pattern the \w* can also match 0 occurrences and that the . can match any character if it is not escaped.

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Another option could be using a character class to match either - or a word character, but this would also allow to mix and match like --a--.sql

[\w-]+\.sql

See another regex demo.