I'm trying to make sure that at least 4 alphanumeric characters are included in the input, and that underscores are also allowed.
The regular-expressions tutorial is a bit over my head because it talks about assertions and success/failure if there is a match.
^\w*(?=[a-zA-Z0-9]{4})$
my understanding:
\w --> alphanumeric + underscore
* --> matches the previous token between zero and unlimited times ( so, this means it can be any character that is alphanumeric/underscore, correct?)
(?=[a-zA-Z0-9]{4}) --> looks ahead of the previous characters, and if they include at least 4 alphanumeric characters, then I'm good.
Obviously I'm wrong on this, because regex101 is showing me no matches.
You want 4 or more alphanumeric characters, surround by any number of underscores (use ^ and $ to ensure it match's the whole input ):
^(_*[a-zA-Z0-9]_*){4,}$
I suggest using atomic groups (?>...), please see regex tutorial for details
^(?>_*[a-zA-Z0-9]_*){4,}$
to ensure 4 or more fragments each of them containing letter or digit.
Edit: If regex doesn't support atomic, let's try use just groups:
^(?:_*[A-Za-z0-9]_*){4,}$
Your pattern ^\w*(?=[a-zA-Z0-9]{4})$ does not match because:
^\w* Matches optional word characters from the start of the string, and if there are only word chars it will match until the end of the string(?=[a-zA-Z0-9]{4}) The positive lookahead is true, if it can assert 4 consecutive alphanumeric chars to the right from the current position. The \w* allows backtracking, and can backtrack 4 positions so that the assertion it true.$ asserts the end of the string, which it can not match as the position moved 4 steps to the left to fulfill the previous positive lookahead assertion.Using the lookahead, what you can do is assert 4 alphanumeric chars preceded by optional underscores.
If the assertion is true, match 1 or more word characters.
^(?=(?:_*[a-zA-Z0-9]){4})\w+$
The pattern matches:
^ Start of string(?= Positive lookahead, asser what is to the right is
(?:_*[a-zA-Z0-9]){4} Repeat 4 times matching optional _ followed by an alphanumeric char) Close the lookahead\w+ Match 1+ word characters (which includes the _)$ End of string