On Monday, 25 May 2015 at 11:20:46 UTC, novice2 wrote: >> I cannot get the longest possible > it match longest for first group ([a-z]+) > > try > > ^([a-z]+?)(hula|ula)$ Namespace, novice2: Ah, I see. The problem was with the first group that was too greedy, not with the second. I was focusing on the latter. Thanks, this works now!