How to create a RegEx for something like {{example:bool}}

I'm creating shortcodes inside an Angular application. To replace the content I'm using regular expressions.

Replacing shortcodes like {{example}} to get "example" is working well. For that I'm using the following regex:

/\{+([^\][]+?)}+/g

But now the challenge. What if I have a shortcode with this structure: {{example:bool}}. I need "example" also in this case. What I tried is not working. This is my version:

/\{+([^\][]+?):bool}+/g

But seems to be the wrong way... I also tried it with helper pages like regex101. But everything I try is not the solution I need. I really want to understand this. So if you answer this question, would be awesome to get also an explanation for it. Thanks in advance!

The main thing about matching some strings between two different characters when another string is between them is to exclude the delimiter chars. You exclude [ and ] betweeen { and } while you should be excluding the braces themselves.

So, you may use either

{+([^{}:]*)(?::([^{}]*))?}+

(see demo) if you plan to match and capture any string inside {...} before the first colon (if any) into Group 1 and the part after : into Group 2 (again, if any).

If you plan to match a specific word/string at the end of the {...} string just use it as part of the regex (you can freely use any literal text as part of the regex):

{+([^{}:]*):bool}+
{+([^{}:]*)(?::([^{}]*))?:bool}+

See this regex demo and this regex demo.

The first regex here matches the same way as the first regex in the answer but the part with : is not optional. The second regex here matches a second : part optionally, before :bool obligatory part.

Details (last regex):

• {+ - one or more { chars
• ([^{}:]*) - Group 1: any zero or more chars other than { and }
• (?::([^{}]*))? - an optional sequence of
  • : - a colon
  • ([^{}]*) - Group 2: any zero or more chars other than { and }
• :bool - a literal text
• }+ - one or more } chars.