${(S)…}: Closest and non-greedy matching

(S) is only useful with parameter expansion operators ${...#...}, ${...%...}, and ${.../...}.

${(S)...#...}

${(S)...##...}

Search for the match that starts closest to the start of the string

${(S)...%...}

${(S)...%%...}

Search for the match that starts closest to the end of the string

${(S).../...}

${(S)...//...}

Non-greedy matching to replace the shortest instead of the longest match.

Links

• Zsh manual on parameter expansion flags

Examples

Non-greedy string replace

1 2 3

value="Monday is a working day" echo Shortest match: ${(S)value//*day/...day} echo Longest match: ${value//*day/...day}

Output:

1 2	Shortest match: ...day...day Longest match: ...day