re = /^(?!.*THIRD.*(?:SECOND|FIRST)) # SECOND or FIRST cannot appear after THIRD
(?!.*SECOND.*FIRST) # SECOND cannot appear before FIRST
(?!.*THIRD.*THIRD)
(?!.*SECOND.*SECOND)
(?!.*FIRST.*FIRST)
(?=.*FIRST).*/mx
str = 'FIRST
FIRST SECOND
FIRST SECOND THIRD
SECOND THIRD FIRST
SECOND FIRST THIRD
THIRD SECOND FIRST
FIRST FIRST
SECOND FIRST THIRD
FIRST SECOND SECOND
The word FIRST is mandatory ; it can appear only once
The word SECOND can appear zero or one time
The word THIRD can appear zero or one time
Order: FIRST, then SECOND then THIRD'
# 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