Combining OR (|) and 'end' ($) operator in ustrregexra()

[Andreas Filser]

I have a list of (variable) names that I want to delete from a longer list of names using ustrregexra("long_list","short_list-regex",""), i.e. I'd like to search for all matches of short_list in long_list and replace them with nothing using ustrregexra().
My problem is that I want to use the `$`-Operator to avoid matches with names that have additional suffixes.
Here's an example:
Suppose I have a global containing "te_m te_m_uq te_m_f te_m_uq_f" from which I'd like to delete te_m & te_m_uq, but keep te_m_f & te_m_uq_f - in my actual problem, both lists are quite a bit longer

glo long_list "te_m te_m_uq te_m_f te_m_uq_f"

. dis ustrregexra("${long_list}","(te_m|te_m_uq)","X")  // not what I want -> leave 2 & 4 unchanged
X X_uq X_f X_uq_f

. dis ustrregexra("${long_list}","(te_m$|te_m_uq$)","X") // does not change te_m & te_m_uq
te_m te_m_uq te_m_f te_m_uq_f
 
. dis ustrregexra("${long_list}","(te_m|te_m_uq)$","X") // does not change te_m & te_m_uq
te_m te_m_uq te_m_f te_m_uq_f

The result should eventually be stored into a global

[Andrew Musau]

Use word boundaries to match exact words and locals instead of globals.

local long_list "te_m te_m_uq te_m_f te_m_uq_f"
display ustrregexra("`long_list'","\b(te_m|te_m_uq)\b","X")

Res.:

. display ustrregexra("`long_list'","\b(te_m|te_m_uq)\b","X")
X X te_m_f te_m_uq_f

.

[Andreas Filser]

Perfect, works like a charm - thank you Andrew Musau!