Regex to match character x times at the start of string but don't match at all if it's more than that

I’m currently facing the problem that I want to match a character (%) x times but not more than that at the start of a line.
My initial thought was to do this:

^%{1,6}

but this matches %%%%%%%

Is there a way to not make it match at all if the maximum is reached?

>Solution :

You can use

^%{1,6}(?!%)

See the .NET regex demo.

Details:

• ^ – start of string
• %{1,6} – one to six occurrences of a % char
• (?!%) – a negative lookahead that fails the match if there is a % char immediately on the right.