Regex lookahead question

[David Lindahl]

This is basically a general regex question tho I'm using the Java-flavor of it.
I'm parsing a file containing variables wich are denoted by $name. I need to find all the variables for later use. However one syntax gives me a problem:
$varName in $varList
Here I only wish to match $varList. I've tried to use a negative lookahead like so:

 "\$(\w+)(?!\sin)"  

The only effect this has is, quite logicaly, that the last w+ before a " in" isnt matched, ie my matches would be $varNam and $varList. How do I solve this? Theres probably some stupidly easy way but I just cant see it!
Thanks

[Henry Wong]

One option is to add a "word boundary" to the regex. This will force the match to match the whole word, and not allow it to backup one letter to avoid the "in" word.

Henry

[David Lindahl]

A very simple and working solution, thanks!