Help for creating a regex

[daobrien]

I'm trying to create a style to match on the incorrect use of "lower left" and "lower-right" and so on. It's almost working, but I can't match the following string:

"Click Save at the lower-left."

I don't seem to be able to catch any punctuation in that position:

"Click Save at the lower left, and then click OK."

These are the rules that I have so far:

extends: substitution
message: "Use %s instead of '%s'."
level: warning
ignorecase: true
action:
  name: replace
swap:
  - "the (lower|upper)-(left|right)/.": "the $1-$2 + <noun>"
  - "the (lower|upper) (left|right)( of)?": "the $1-$2 + <noun>"

I've tried a few different variations but can't get it to work. I can match the strings ok but not the punctuation.

In summary, I need to replace "upper left" with "upper-left", and ensure that it's not followed by punctuation. I tried this in regex101.com and it works as expected:

the (upper|lower)( |-)(left|right)(\.)

I was going to try testing in Vale Studio but it appears to be not working/unavailable.

Thanks for any help.
David

[ccoVeille]

I feel like you are looking for nonword: true setting

https://vale.sh/docs/checks/substitution

The automatic \b added by default are going in the way with your advanced regex

[daobrien]

I did try that but it seemed to break the regex in other ways. I'll give it another go later today and see what happens.

Thanks for the response.
David

[daobrien]

I did some more testing on this and ended up writing a separate rule that incorporates nonword: true and that works ok. I was trying to achieve too much in one style and was treading on my own feet.

Thanks again for the help.
David