regex - Regular expression (.NET): how to get a group in the middle -

i'd group in middle. example:

startgoalend => goal  goalend => goal  goal => goal 

i'm trying (start)?(.*)(end)?, doesn't lead needed result.

var regex = new regex("(start)?(.*)(end)?"); if (text == null) return; var match = regex.match(text); foreach (var group in match.groups) {     console.out.writeline(group); } 

it returns:

startgoalend  start  goalend 

how solve regular expressions?

you want avoid capturing start , end groups. can avoid capturing contents of pair of parentheses putting ?: @ start.

you need make capture of middle part lazy, doesn't capture end part of middle part. can putting ? after *.

so altogether, get:

(?:start)?(.*?)(?:end)?$