The regexp {1,5} is satisfied with the minimum of 1 digit. It looks ahead and finds your '.*'. That in turn consumes all but the last character.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.
Perhaps what you want is '[^0-9]+([0-9]{1,5})[^0-9]+'Translates to "at least one non digit followed by 1-5 digits and then at least 1 non digit".
Regards, Thomas Hallgren
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