title: What's the profit of using /.*?/
body: <p>In some Rails code (cucumber features' steps definitions, javascripts, <code>rails_admin</code> gem) I found this regular expression parts: </p>
  
  <pre><code>string =~ /some regexp.+rules should match "(.*?)"/i
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I do have some knowledge at regular expressions and i know that <code>*</code> and <code>?</code> symbols are similar but whilst asterisk means <code>zero and more</code>, the question mark means <code>could be present or could be not</code>. </p>
  
  <p>So, using the question mark near the group of symbols makes its presence <strong>non-required</strong> within the phrase being tested. What's the... well... the trick of using it near the non-required already group (skipping requirement is made using the asterisk afaik)?</p>