RegExp: Match first 3 char words

Mafyou 0
Viewed 17

/[\w|A-Z]{1,3}[a-z]/g but I want to match only the first 3 char of words.
For example:

I WANt THE FIRst 3 CHAr OF WORds ONLy.

It's for a rapid lector: only uppercase the begining of any words.

The best could be: (First 3 char)(Rest of the word or space)

https://regex101.com/r/PCi8Dn/2

Thank you !

regex
1 Answers

Original answer

Use positive lookahead ((?=[pattern]) to match without including in the match.

[A-Z]{1,3}(?=[a-z])

appears to do what you want (if I've understood your spec correctly).

You can see it in action here.

New answer following clarification on spec

I think this does what you want:

(\S{1,3})(\S*[\s\.]+)

The breakdown is:

  • 1st capturing group: (\S{1,3})

Matches a maximum of 3 non-space characters (\S used instead of \w because I think you want to match characters with diacritics like à and punctuation in the middle of words like '.

  • 2nd capturing group: (\S*[\s\.]+)

Matches zero or more non-space characters (the remaining characters in each word) followed by one or more delimiter characters (space or period). I included period as a delimiter to match the last word. You might want to adjust that part depending on your exact needs.

See it in action here.

ljdyer0
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