Golang Regex is supposed to recognize either or but not both

How do I get my regex

\b([t][\W_]*?)+([ea][\W_]*?)+([s][\W_]*?)+([t][\W_]*?)*?\b 

to hit "test", "tast" but not "teast" or "taest" with Golang?

https://regex101.com/r/ydvSR8/2

>Solution :

You can match either one or more (e[\W_]*?) or one or more (a[\W_]*?):

\b(t[\W_]*?)+((?:e[\W_]*?)+|(?:a[\W_]*?)+)(s[\W_]*?)+(t[\W_]*?)*?\b
//           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^      

See the regex demo. The ((?:e[\W_]*?)+|(?:a[\W_]*?)+) pattern is a capturing group that matches

• (?:e[\W_]*?)+ – one or more e and zero or more non-alphanumeric chars as few as possible
• | – or
• (?:a[\W_]*?)+ – one or more a and zero or more non-alphanumeric chars as few as possible.