when i use pattren
"(see|see also) [\w\d]+" on Text
see page see also page But output Matches is
see page see also if im interchanged see, see also
"(see also|see) [\w\d]+" the output is
see page see also page I thought both are same. May i know why this is happen?
Removing the alternation and leaving see [\w\d]+ will match the string "see also page" because it is satisfied by see also. The way that regular expressions work with alternation (at least in this case) is that it will attempt to match each option in order with the rest of the pattern and stop as soon as it does so successfully, or go back to the alternatives when it fails. When you reverse the alternation, it tries to match with see also first, but that will fail with "see page."
It would make more sense to write this as see( also)? [\w\d]+
