re = /(?<=\bopt[123]\s(?!\s*opt\d)).*?(?=\s*\bbecause_of_this\b)/m
str = 'other text opt1 opt2 opt3 I_want_only_this_text because_of_this'
# Print the match result
str.scan(re) do |match|
puts match.to_s
end
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for Ruby, please visit: http://ruby-doc.org/core-2.2.0/Regexp.html