Regex: match pattern as long as it's not in the beginning

Question

Assume the following strings:

aaa bbb ccc
bbb aaa ccc

I want to match aaa as long as it is not at the start of the string. I'm trying to negate it by doing something like this:

[^^]aaa

But I don't think this is right. Using preg_replace.

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15669557/regex-match-pattern-as-long-as-its-not-in-the-beginning

Answer 1

You can use a look behind to make sure it is not at the beginning. (?<!^)aaa