Regex to match periods but not between numbers

Question

I want a regex to match a string that contains a word from the previous period to the next period but if a number with a period is in in between, I want it to match the next period.

So in:

Hello. This is an example. This is an example. This is an 4.815 example.

I wanto to match:

This is an example
This is another example.
This is an 4.815 example. 

For now I have this regex but it breaks at the period in "4.815"

([^.]+)example[^.]*

Thank you!

Answer 1

One option could be

[^.]*(?:(?:\.\d)[^.]*)*example[^.]*(?:(?:\.\d)[^.]*)*\.

The pattern matches

• [^.]*(?:(?:\.\d)[^.]*)* Match any char except a dot, only when the dot is followed by a digit
• example Match literally
• [^.]*(?:(?:\.\d)[^.]*)* Match any char except a dot, only when the dot is followed by a digit
• \. Match a literal dot

Regex demo

Or without the leading whitspace

(?<!\S)[^.]*(?:(?:\.\d)[^.]*)*example[^.]*(?:(?:\.\d)[^.]*)*\.

Regex demo