Isolate a variable length number in a string using regex in powershell

Question

I am attempting to parse strings to find a variable length number within a string.

Here are some strings I'm testing against...

this_is_a_test_string25365with_a_number

this_is_another_test243with_a_number

testing_again3with_a_number

$Regex = "\b.*([\d]{1,}).*\b"
foreach($result in $testdata) {
    if( $result -match $Regex ) {
            $Matches[1]
    }
}

When I change the quantifier behind the \\d it only gives me that number of digits

Answer 1

If you are trying to isolate just the number, you don't need the word boundaries with \\b and the wildcards .* . You want just your numbers to match.

You want to use [\\d]+ which says, any digit with 1 or more in a row.

Based on your examples, look here for validation. for validation

However: if you want to capture the entire string, you can leave the word bounds and the wildcards on both ends and it will capture the full string. Example here

Answer 2

That .* is going to be "greedy" and suck up everything up to the minimum number of digits needed to satisfy the match.

One way to fix that:

$Regex = "\b\D*([\d]{1,}).*\b"