Prevent LaTeX listings from highlighting part of word

Question

I'm defining my own listings and have run into an issue whereby LaTeX highlights words within words - e.g. if OR is a keyword, it highlights the OR in ANIMATOR - even if ANIMATOR itself is a keyword (it overrides the ANIMATOR highlighting).

MWE:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{listings, xcolor, courier}

\lstdefinelanguage{defFile}{
    morekeywords={FOOBAR, FOOBAE},
    otherkeywords={-,->,> ,BAR},
    morekeywords=[2]{-,->,>,;},
    morekeywords=[3]{BAR}
}

\lstdefinestyle{defFile}
{   
    \lstset{
            language = {defFile},
            basicstyle = \small\ttfamily,
            keywordstyle = \bfseries\color{purple},
            keywordstyle = [2]{\color{green}},
            keywordstyle = [3]{\color{blue}}
            }
}
\begin{document}

\begin{lstlisting}[style={defFile}]
FOOBAR -> FOO, BAR
FOOBAE -> FOO, BAE
\end{lstlisting}


\end{document}

The result of this is:

Note how due to subsequently defining BAR as a keyword, FOOBAR is no longer highlighted.

Answer 1

Your example doesn't compile. You can't use \lstset inside a style definition. Beside this: Don't repeat your keywords in otherkeywords:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{listings, xcolor, courier}

\lstdefinelanguage{defFile}{
    morekeywords={FOOBAR, FOOBAE},
    otherkeywords={-,->,>},
    morekeywords=[2]{-,->,>,;},
    morekeywords=[3]{BAR}
}

\lstdefinestyle{defFile}
{
            language = {defFile},
            basicstyle = \small\ttfamily,
            keywordstyle = \bfseries\color{purple},
            keywordstyle = [2]{\color{green}},
            keywordstyle = [3]{\color{blue}}
}
\begin{document}

\begin{lstlisting}[style={defFile}]
FOOBAR -> FOO, BAR
FOOBAE -> FOO, BAE
\end{lstlisting}


\end{document}