/[\w|A-Z]{1,3}[a-z]/g
but I want to match only the first 3 char of words.
For example:
I WANt THE FIRst 3 CHAr OF WORds ONLy.
It’s for a rapid lector: only uppercase the begining of any words.
The best could be: (First 3 char)(Rest of the word or space)
https://regex101.com/r/PCi8Dn/2
Thank you !
>Solution :
Original answer
Use positive lookahead ((?=[pattern]) to match without including in the match.
[A-Z]{1,3}(?=[a-z])
appears to do what you want (if I’ve understood your spec correctly).
You can see it in action here.
New answer following clarification on spec
I think this does what you want:
(\S{1,3})(\S*[\s\.]+)
The breakdown is:
- 1st capturing group:
(\S{1,3})
Matches a maximum of 3 non-space characters (\S used instead of \w because I think you want to match characters with diacritics like à and punctuation in the middle of words like '.
- 2nd capturing group:
(\S*[\s\.]+)
Matches zero or more non-space characters (the remaining characters in each word) followed by one or more delimiter characters (space or period). I included period as a delimiter to match the last word. You might want to adjust that part depending on your exact needs.
See it in action here.