REGEX Question: Match regex, but exclude a specific string

Question

With the Regex \s-\s.*:\s I successfully match the following:

22/12/2015, 17:31 - Dr. Peper: My Message 22/12/2015, 17:01 - Frank: MESSAGE MA MA MA MA asdf aysfjsfdl asdfoasdf 22/12/2015, 17:18 - Sepp: MESSAGE ----- XXX 22/12/2015, 17:31 - Dr. Peper: My Message

However, now I want to exclude the string "Dr Peper" from the matching. How can I get the following as a result?

22/12/2015, 17:31 - Dr. Peper: My Message 22/12/2015, 17:01 - Frank: MESSAGE MA MA MA MA asdf aysfjsfdl asdfoasdf 22/12/2015, 17:18 - Sepp: MESSAGE ----- XXX 22/12/2015, 17:31 - Dr. Peper: My Message

"Sepp" and "Frank" are arbitrary strings.

Thank you so much for your answers!

Do you mean like this? \s-\s.*(?<!Dr\. Peper):\s regex101.com/r/llXSX4/1 or \s-(?!\s*Dr\. Peper)\s.*:\s — The fourth bird
– The fourth bird, Commented Dec 30, 2019 at 12:37
Please format your question to be easy to read and understand. Use the {} button in the editor toolbar to mark the code or the data to be processed. — axiac
– axiac, Commented Dec 30, 2019 at 12:56

The fourth bird · Accepted Answer · 2019-12-30 12:54:04Z

1

The .* part of the pattern will first match until the end of the string and will then backtrack until the first : that can be followed by a whitespace char.

If you want to match a whitespace char and then until the first occurrence of :, I would suggest using a negated character class [^:\r\n]* instead matching any char except a : or a newline.

To match the names except Dr. Peper, you could use a negative lookahead to assert what follows is not 0+ whitespace chars an Dr. Peper:

\s-(?!\s*Dr\. Peper:)\s[^:\r\n]*:\s

Regex demo

answered Dec 30, 2019 at 12:54

The fourth bird

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