NOTE - Forward reference is supported by JGsoft, .NET, Java, Perl, PCRE, PHP, Delphi and Ruby regex flavors.
Forward reference creates a back reference to a regex that would appear later.
Forward references are only useful if they're inside a repeated group.
Then there may arise a case in which the regex engine evaluates the backreference after the group has been matched already.
Task
You have a test string .
Your task is to write a regex which will match , with following condition(s):
- consists of
tic
ortac
. tic
should not be immediate neighbour of itself.- The first
tic
must occur only whentac
has appeared at least twice before.
Valid
tactactic
tactactictactic
Invalid
tactactictactictictac
tactictac
Note
This is a regex only challenge. You are not required to write any code.
You only have to fill the regex pattern in the blank (_________
).