I have a regex that will match IP addresses.
it looks like:
^(25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?).
(25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?).
(25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?).
(25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?|*|25[0-5]-25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]-25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]-2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?-25[0-5]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?-2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?-[01]?[0-9][0-9])$
which you will mostly recognise from many other posts here on SO. however I have modded it to match the range form XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX-XXY
However it now seems a little complex, particularly the final () capture. I would like some help to simplify this regex if possible.
Just to be clear
aaaa - not matched
999.1.1.1 - not matched
1.1.1.999 - not matched
192.168.2.1 - matched
192.168.2.* - matched
192.168.2.10-20 - matched
EDIT
I forgot to mention that I need the existing capture groups as well.
You could perhaps use optional groups (?: ... )? instead and use another grouping for the first 3 parts of the IP?
^(?:(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\.){3}
(?:25[0-5](?:-25[0-5])?|
2[0-4][0-9](?:-(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]))?|
[01]?[0-9][0-9]?(?:-(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?))?|
\*)$
Updated with capture groups
^((?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?))\.
((?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?))\.
((?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?))\.
(25[0-5](?:-25[0-5])?|
2[0-4][0-9](?:-(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]))?|
[01]?[0-9][0-9]?(?:-(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?))?|
\*)$
This works -
^(25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\.(25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\.(25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\.(?:(25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)(?:\-(25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?))|(\*))$
As can be seen here
This should work and is a bit shorter:
^((25[0-5]|2[0-4]\d|[01]?\d{1,2})\.){3}(\*|(25[0-5]|2[0-4]\d|[01]?\d{1,2}))(\-(25[0-5]|2[0-4]\d|[01]?\d{1,2}))?$