The "*" and Friends

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# 7.3. The "*" and Friends

In order to repeat a character more than one time several repetition paterns can be used. The asterisk (`*`) can be used to indicate that the character should repeat zero or more times. The plus sign (`+`) can be used to indicate that the character should repeat one or more times. As for the question mark (`?`) it indicates an appearance of zero or one time.

The following pattern `/ab*c/` matches "a" followed by as many times of b as we like and then c. The pattern `/you k?now/` matches both "you know" and "you now". The pattern `/hello +world/` matches the word "hello" followed by the word "world". (with some whitespace in between).

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