Re: Regexp matching: bug or operator error?

Ken Tanzer <ktanzer(at)desc(dot)org> writes:
> Using Postgres V. 7.4.1, the following query:

> SELECT substring('X12345X' FROM '.*?([0-9]{1,5}).*?');

> Returns '1'. I would expect it to return '12345'. Is this a bug, or am
> I missing something? Thanks.

Hmm ... playing with it, it seems that there may indeed be a bug here
... it's acting like the "non greedy" flag from the .*? is being applied
to the {m,n} as well. In other words the behavior would be correct for

SELECT substring('X12345X' FROM '.*?([0-9]{1,5}?).*?');

However, aren't you doing this the hard way? Why not just

SELECT substring('X12345X' FROM '([0-9]{1,5})');

regards, tom lane