Tutorial by Examples

To find a match, the regex engine will consume characters one by one. When a partial match begins, the engine will remember the start position so it can go back in case the following characters don't complete the match. If the match is complete, the is no backtracking If the match isn't complete...

Backtracking can be caused by optional quantifiers or alternation constructs, because the regex engine will try to explore every path. If you run the regex a+b against aaaaaaaaaaaaaa there is no match and the engine will find it pretty fast. But if you change the regex to (aa*)+b the number of comb...