unusual regex expression

[Iago]

Hello,
I do not understand the following regex expression: |(.*)(:)(.*)|
The "|" should be OR (between two strings), shouldn't it?
Thank you for your help!

Iago

[seandisanti]

i usually have a hard time with regex, but this one looks straightforward. (.*) says to capture all sequential iteration of a pattern, in this case no pattern is specified so it will return everything. (:) means to capture just that character, and then back to another (.*). i believe that the pattern you've listed would return the same result as a single (.*)

[Iago]

Thanks a lot!