Regex match group with elements in random order

Question

For simplicity sake, let's say I have the following literal string:

abc[4;?;z;*]def

where 4, ?, z and * can appear in random order, are separated by a ; , and are characters (or strings) that i know beforehand.

I have this regex that matches the string using 'or' groups:

abc\[(?:z|\*|4|\?|\;)+\]def

The problem is that is still matching if one of the elements is missing in the string, and I want to check if all are present:

abc[?;z;*]def

Capturing groups are irrelevant for me. I just want to confirm the whole string.

Answer 1

You can use

abc\[(?=[^][]*z)(?=[^][]*4)(?=[^][]*\?)(?=[^][]*;)(?=[^][]*\*)[z*4?;]+]def

See the regex demo. Details:

• abc\[ - a literal abc[ string
• (?=[^][]*z) - after zero or more chars other than [ and ], there must be a z
• (?=[^][]*4) - after zero or more chars other than [ and ], there must be a 4
• (?=[^][]*\?) - after zero or more chars other than [ and ], there must be a ?
• (?=[^][]*;) - after zero or more chars other than [ and ], there must be a ;
• (?=[^][]*\*) - after zero or more chars other than [ and ], there must be a *
• [z*4?;]+ - one or more chars in the set, z, *, 4, ?, ;
• ]def - a literal ]def string.