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Using the Perl regex engine, I can't figure out how to extract the last item in a line where items are split using the TAB character.

Here's an example from the Process Explorer log file:

^advapi32.dll\tAdvanced Windows 32 Base API\tMicrosoft Corporation\t5.1.2600.5755\tC:\WINDOWS\system32\advapi32.dll$

I tried the following, to no avail:

  • \t\w$: "Search string '\t\w$' not found!". Makes sense, as "\" isn't taken into account
  • \t[^\t].+?$: Starts from the second column
  • [^\t].+?$: Whole line

Any idea?

Thank you.

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Use greediness of the wildcards: they will eat up as much as the can. For example if you want to match a whole line, use: ^.*\t([^\t]+)$. The ^.*\t matches everything that precedes a tab (including it) and the ([^t]+)$ group matches what you are looking for (and you can reference it with $1 in this case).

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You were not far : very simply \t[^\t]+$ (or \t([^\t]+)$ if you can capture group from the result (the group you're looking for is inside the parenthesis)

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  • Thanks but I tried "\t([^\t]+)$" and it simply removes the last\t before the last item – OverTheRainbow Nov 19 '12 at 13:59
  • Can you explain further what you're doing with these regexp, exactly ? Because I can assure you that this one matches what you need. – Orabîg Nov 19 '12 at 14:42
  • Ok, forget it. I just saw you gave credit to another one... – Orabîg Nov 19 '12 at 14:43

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