Regular expression containing one word or another

Question

I need to create an expression matching a whole number followed by either  seconds  or   minutes   I tried this expression    0-9    s   bseconds b    bminutes b   It works fine for seconds  but not minutes   E g   5 seconds  gives 5 seconds  while  5 minutes  gives   minutes

User · Accepted Answer

You just missed an extra pair of brackets for the "OR" symbol. The following should do the trick:

([0-9]+)\s+((\bseconds\b)|(\bminutes\b))

Without those you were either matching a number followed by seconds OR just the word minutes

User · Answer

You can use a single group for seconds minutes  The following expression may suit your needs     0-9    s  seconds minutes    Online demo

[regex] Regular expression containing one word or another

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