On Mon, Aug 23, 2021 at 2:39 PM Markhof, Ingolf <ingolf.markhof@de.verizon.com> wrote: > Yes, When I use (\1)? instead of (\1)+, the expression is evaluated quickly, but it doesn't return what I want. Once a word is written, it is not subject to matching again. i.e. > select regexp_replace( --> remove double entries > 'one,one,one,two,two,three,three', > '([^,]+)(,\1)?($|,)', > '\1\3', > 'g' > ) as res; > ... > Honestly, this behaviour seems to be incorrect for me. Once the system replaces the first two 'one,one,' by a single 'one,', I'd expect to match this replaced one 'one,' with the next 'one,' following, replacing these two by another, single 'one,', again...
I think your expectation is misguided. All the regexp engines I've used do it this way, when asked to match "g"lobally they do non-overlapping matches, they do not substitute and recurse with the modified string.
Also, your way opens the door to run-away or infinite loops ( rr('a','a','aa','g') or rr('a','a','a','g'), not to speak of r('x','','','g') ). Even a misguided r(str, '_+','_','g'), used sometimes to normalize space runs and similar things, can go into a loop.
Francisco Olarte.
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