I have this regex to match a repeating pattern:
/([0-9]{1,2}:[0-9]{1,2};)+/
It'll match strings like: 9:9; (1 set of numbers) or 12:2;4:9; (2 sets of numbers) or 5:2;7:7;5:2; (3 sets of numbers), and so on.
So far so good, but I need the semi-colon to be required to separate each set, while optional if it's at the end of the line. So I need it to accept both this: 5:2;7:7;5:2; and this: 5:2;7:7;5:2. This: 9:9; and this: 9:9.
How might this be achieved?
You can use (;|$) so the ending ; is optional
/([0-9]{1,2}:[0-9]{1,2}(;|$))+/
To avoid capturing ; you can use (?:;|$).?: is a non-capturing group
You could go for:
^(\d{1,2}:\d{1,2};?)+$
See a demo on regex101.com.\d matches 0-9, ;? matches a semicolon if it is there , ^ and $ are anchors for a line.