`regex{n,}?` == `regex{n}`?

Question

-edit- NOTE the ? at the end of .{2,}?

I found out you can write

.{2,}?

Isnt that exactly the same as bel

Answer 1

No, they are different. ^.{2,}?$ matches strings whose length is at least 2 (as seen on rubular.com):

12
123
1234

By contrast, ^.{2}$ only matches strings whose length is exactly 2 (as seen on rubular.com).

It's correct that being reluctant, .{2,}? will first attempt to match only two characters. But for the overall pattern to match, it can take more. This is not the case with .{2}, which can only match exactly 2 characters.

References

• regular-expressions.info/Repetition

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