Damn, you're right... sorry :-) Brian Candler wrote: > Mark Kremer wrote: > >> I'm not sure if you still want the regex, but following regex should do >> the trick: ^(.{1})(?!\1)(.{1})(?!\1|\2).{1}\2$ >> > > Which is the same as the one I posted in my initial reply: > > irb(main):009:0> /^(.)(?!\1)(.)(?!\1|\2)(.)(\2)$/ =~ "abcb" > => 0 > irb(main):010:0> /^(.)(?!\1)(.)(?!\1|\2)(.)(\2)$/ =~ "abbb" > => nil >