The regex matches either a line with a single character or a line with a sequence of two or more characters that’s repeated two or more times. For some examples: the regex matches “a”, “b”, “abab”, “ababab”, “aaaa”, and “bbbbbb”, but does not match “aa”, “bb”, “aaa”, “ab”, “aba”, or “ababa”.
Hint for the special thing it matches
For a line with a single character repeated n times, what does matching (or not matching) this regex say about the number n?
This is brilliantly disgusting.
Literal interpretation of the regex
The regex matches either a line with a single character or a line with a sequence of two or more characters that’s repeated two or more times. For some examples: the regex matches “a”, “b”, “abab”, “ababab”, “aaaa”, and “bbbbbb”, but does not match “aa”, “bb”, “aaa”, “ab”, “aba”, or “ababa”.
Hint for the special thing it matches
For a line with a single character repeated n times, what does matching (or not matching) this regex say about the number n?