extract the first word from a string - regex

Question

I have the following string:

 str1 = "cat-one,cat2,cat-3"; OR str1 = "catone,cat-2,cat3"; OR str1 = "catone"; OR str1 = "cat-one"; 

The point here is words may/may not have "-"s in it

Using regex: How could I extract the 1st word?

Appreciate any help on this.

Thanks, L

Answer 1

It's pretty easy, just include allowed characters in brackets:

^([\w\-]+)