Help with regex search, negative lookahead

[rowbearto]

I want to do a search for testcase.XXXXX, where XXXX can be anything but exclude cases where XXXX=testObjInstance

For example if my file contains:

testcase.abcd
testcase.testObjInstance

I want to find "testcase.abcd" but not have "testcase.testObjInstance" show up in my search results.

I tried using BigFind regex "negative lookahead" as advised in stack overflow:  https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2078915/a-regular-expression-to-exclude-a-word-string

For "Search For:" I used:

(?!testObjInstance)testcase\.

But it finds both "testcase.abcd" and "testcase.testObjInstance".

I then changed to "Vim syntax" but it finds nothing.

What is the best way to do this in Slick?

[rowbearto]

OK, I found an expression that works. Had to wrap with .* :

(?!.*testObjInstance.*)testcase\.

[Clark]

I think you want something like this:

testcase\.(?!testObjInstance)

What you wrote works but is less efficient

[TKasparek]

My two regex cheat bookmarks (I use PCRE)  :
https://regex101.com/
https://www.debuggex.com/cheatsheet/regex/pcre

You should use Clark's suggestion. If you use yours and your negative instance is in the search area you'll negate a positive search due to the wildcards.
For instance
testcase.abcd testcase.testObjInstance
on the same line will match
testcase.abcd
with Clark's but not yours.

Also, if you want to include the extension...
testcase\.(?!testObjInstance)\S+
https://regex101.com/r/Q5EXTc/1

[rowbearto]

Thanks Clark and TKasparek! Very very helpful.