Linux RegEx Grep Repeat character from n to m times - grep

Question

I have a problem with this Linux command:
ls | grep -E 'i{2,3}'
.It should take a file that has at least 2 i and max 3 i, but it doesn't work.
This is the output
ls:
life.py, viiva.txt, viiiiiiiiiva.txt
grep:
viiva.txt, viiiiiiiiiva.txt (with the first 3 I highlighted)
Thanks for the help.

Answer 1

Issue with OP's attempt grep -E 'i{2,3}' will match two or three consecutive occurrences of i anywhere in the input, so 4 or more consecutive i is also a valid match.
Parsing ls output is not recommended, see Why not parse ls (and what to do instead)?. If you wish to pass the filenames after filtering to some other command, find is a good option.
$ ls
1i2i3i.txt aibi.txt II.txt life.py viiiiiiiiiva.txt viiva.txt
$ # files with 2 or 3 consecutive i
$ # note that the regex will act on entire filename, thus anchors are not needed
$ find -type f -regextype egrep -regex '[^i]*i{2,3}[^i]*'
./viiva.txt
$ # files with 2 or 3 i anywhere in the name
$ find -type f -regextype egrep -regex '[^i]*i[^i]*i[^i]*(i[^i]*)?'
./aibi.txt
./1i2i3i.txt
./viiva.txt
$ # files with 2 or 3 i anywhere in the name, ignoring case
$ find -type f -regextype egrep -iregex '[^i]*i[^i]*i[^i]*(i[^i]*)?'
./II.txt
./aibi.txt
./1i2i3i.txt
./viiva.txt
If filenames won't cause an issue, you can grep -xE or grep -ixE with above regex, where x option will make sure the regex matches the whole line, instead of anywhere in the line. Or you can also use awk:
$ # NF will give number of fields after splitting on i
$ ls | awk -F'i' 'NF>=3 && NF<=4'
1i2i3i.txt
aibi.txt
viiva.txt
$ ls | awk -F'[iI]' 'NF>=3 && NF<=4'
1i2i3i.txt
aibi.txt
II.txt
viiva.txt