RegEx - Match Numbers of Variable Length

Question

I\'m trying to parse a document that has reference numbers littered throughout it.

Text text text {4:2} more incredible text {4:3} much later on {22

Answer 1

{[0-9]+:[0-9]+}

try adding plus(es)

Answer 2

You can specify how many times you want the previous item to match by using {min,max}.

{[0-9]{1,3}:[0-9]{1,3}}

Also, you can use \d for digits instead of [0-9] for most regex flavors:

{\d{1,3}:\d{1,3}}

You may also want to consider escaping the outer { and }, just to make it clear that they are not part of a repetition definition.

Answer 3

Try this:

{[0-9]{1,3}:[0-9]{1,3}}

The {1,3} means "match between 1 and 3 of the preceding characters".

Answer 4

What regex engine are you using? Most of them will support the following expression:

\{\d+:\d+\}

The \d is actually shorthand for [0-9], but the important part is the addition of + which means "one or more".