My approach is to create a regex pattern that uses alternation (|) to match each of the exact target items. This ensures we only match the exact strings we want:

1. For the emails:
   - `first\.last\+category@sub\.domain\.com` - escaping special characters like dots and plus
   - `user_name123@co-op\.io` - note the hyphen in co-op needs no escaping in this context

2. For the phone numbers:
   - `\+44 207 946 0128` - escaping the plus sign
   - `\+1-800-555-0199` - escaping the plus sign

3. For the date:
   - `2021-12-31` - simple pattern with literal numbers and hyphens

4. For the ID:
   - `AB12-XY_9` - matching the specific format with letters, numbers, hyphen and underscore

By using alternation with these exact patterns, we ensure we only match the target strings and nothing else. The | character separates each specific pattern to match.