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1 /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
2 // Name: resyntax.h
3 // Purpose: topic overview
4 // Author: wxWidgets team
5 // RCS-ID: $Id$
6 // Licence: wxWindows license
7 /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
8
9 /*!
10
11 @page overview_resyntax Syntax of the Built-in Regular Expression Library
12
13 A <em>regular expression</em> describes strings of characters. It's a pattern
14 that matches certain strings and doesn't match others.
15
16 @li @ref overview_resyntax_differentflavors
17 @li @ref overview_resyntax_syntax
18 @li @ref overview_resyntax_bracket
19 @li @ref overview_resyntax_escapes
20 @li @ref overview_resyntax_metasyntax
21 @li @ref overview_resyntax_matching
22 @li @ref overview_resyntax_limits
23 @li @ref overview_resyntax_bre
24 @li @ref overview_resyntax_characters
25
26 @seealso
27
28 @li #wxRegEx
29
30
31 <hr>
32
33
34 @section overview_resyntax_differentflavors Different Flavors of Regular Expressions
35
36 Regular expressions (RE), as defined by POSIX, come in two flavors:
37 <em>extended regular expressions</em> (ERE) and <em>basic regular
38 expressions</em> (BRE). EREs are roughly those of the traditional @e egrep,
39 while BREs are roughly those of the traditional @e ed. This implementation
40 adds a third flavor: <em>advanced regular expressions</em> (ARE), basically
41 EREs with some significant extensions.
42
43 This manual page primarily describes AREs. BREs mostly exist for backward
44 compatibility in some old programs. POSIX EREs are almost an exact subset of
45 AREs. Features of AREs that are not present in EREs will be indicated.
46
47
48 @section overview_resyntax_syntax Regular Expression Syntax
49
50 These regular expressions are implemented using the package written by Henry
51 Spencer, based on the 1003.2 spec and some (not quite all) of the Perl5
52 extensions (thanks, Henry!). Much of the description of regular expressions
53 below is copied verbatim from his manual entry.
54
55 An ARE is one or more @e branches, separated by "|", matching anything that
56 matches any of the branches.
57
58 A branch is zero or more @e constraints or @e quantified atoms, concatenated.
59 It matches a match for the first, followed by a match for the second, etc; an
60 empty branch matches the empty string.
61
62 A quantified atom is an @e atom possibly followed by a single @e quantifier.
63 Without a quantifier, it matches a match for the atom. The quantifiers, and
64 what a so-quantified atom matches, are:
65
66 @beginTable
67 @row2col{ <tt>*</tt> ,
68 A sequence of 0 or more matches of the atom. }
69 @row2col{ <tt>+</tt> ,
70 A sequence of 1 or more matches of the atom. }
71 @row2col{ <tt>?</tt> ,
72 A sequence of 0 or 1 matches of the atom. }
73 @row2col{ <tt>{m}</tt> ,
74 A sequence of exactly @e m matches of the atom. }
75 @row2col{ <tt>{m\,}</tt> ,
76 A sequence of @e m or more matches of the atom. }
77 @row2col{ <tt>{m\,n}</tt> ,
78 A sequence of @e m through @e n (inclusive) matches of the atom; @e m may
79 not exceed @e n. }
80 @row2col{ <tt>*? +? ?? {m}? {m\,}? {m\,n}?</tt> ,
81 @e Non-greedy quantifiers, which match the same possibilities, but prefer
82 the smallest number rather than the largest number of matches (see
83 @ref overview_resyntax_matching). }
84 @endTable
85
86 The forms using @b { and @b } are known as @e bounds. The numbers @e m and
87 @e n are unsigned decimal integers with permissible values from 0 to 255
88 inclusive. An atom is one of:
89
90 @beginTable
91 @row2col{ <tt>(re)</tt> ,
92 Where @e re is any regular expression, matches for @e re, with the match
93 captured for possible reporting. }
94 @row2col{ <tt>(?:re)</tt> ,
95 As previous, but does no reporting (a "non-capturing" set of
96 parentheses). }
97 @row2col{ <tt>()</tt> ,
98 Matches an empty string, captured for possible reporting. }
99 @row2col{ <tt>(?:)</tt> ,
100 Matches an empty string, without reporting. }
101 @row2col{ <tt>[chars]</tt> ,
102 A <em>bracket expression</em>, matching any one of the @e chars (see
103 @ref overview_resyntax_bracket for more details). }
104 @row2col{ <tt>.</tt> ,
105 Matches any single character. }
106 @row2col{ <tt>@\k</tt> ,
107 Where @e k is a non-alphanumeric character, matches that character taken
108 as an ordinary character, e.g. @\@\ matches a backslash character. }
109 @row2col{ <tt>@\c</tt> ,
110 Where @e c is alphanumeric (possibly followed by other characters), an
111 @e escape (AREs only), see @ref overview_resyntax_escapes below. }
112 @row2col{ <tt>@leftCurly</tt> ,
113 When followed by a character other than a digit, matches the left-brace
114 character "@leftCurly"; when followed by a digit, it is the beginning of a
115 @e bound (see above). }
116 @row2col{ <tt>x</tt> ,
117 Where @e x is a single character with no other significance, matches that
118 character. }
119 @endTable
120
121 A @e constraint matches an empty string when specific conditions are met. A
122 constraint may not be followed by a quantifier. The simple constraints are as
123 follows; some more constraints are described later, under
124 @ref overview_resyntax_escapes.
125
126 @beginTable
127 @row2col{ <tt>^</tt> ,
128 Matches at the beginning of a line. }
129 @row2col{ <tt>@$</tt> ,
130 Matches at the end of a line. }
131 @row2col{ <tt>(?=re)</tt> ,
132 @e Positive lookahead (AREs only), matches at any point where a substring
133 matching @e re begins. }
134 @row2col{ <tt>(?!re)</tt> ,
135 @e Negative lookahead (AREs only), matches at any point where no substring
136 matching @e re begins. }
137 @endTable
138
139 The lookahead constraints may not contain back references (see later), and all
140 parentheses within them are considered non-capturing. A RE may not end with
141 "\".
142
143
144 @section overview_resyntax_bracket Bracket Expressions
145
146 A <em>bracket expression</em> is a list of characters enclosed in <tt>[]</tt>.
147 It normally matches any single character from the list (but see below). If the
148 list begins with @c ^, it matches any single character (but see below) @e not
149 from the rest of the list.
150
151 If two characters in the list are separated by <tt>-</tt>, this is shorthand
152 for the full @e range of characters between those two (inclusive) in the
153 collating sequence, e.g. <tt>[0-9]</tt> in ASCII matches any decimal digit.
154 Two ranges may not share an endpoint, so e.g. <tt>a-c-e</tt> is illegal.
155 Ranges are very collating-sequence-dependent, and portable programs should
156 avoid relying on them.
157
158 To include a literal <tt>]</tt> or <tt>-</tt> in the list, the simplest method
159 is to enclose it in <tt>[.</tt> and <tt>.]</tt> to make it a collating element
160 (see below). Alternatively, make it the first character (following a possible
161 <tt>^</tt>), or (AREs only) precede it with <tt>@\</tt>. Alternatively, for
162 <tt>-</tt>, make it the last character, or the second endpoint of a range. To
163 use a literal <tt>-</tt> as the first endpoint of a range, make it a collating
164 element or (AREs only) precede it with <tt>@\</tt>. With the exception of
165 these, some combinations using <tt>[</tt> (see next paragraphs), and escapes,
166 all other special characters lose their special significance within a bracket
167 expression.
168
169 Within a bracket expression, a collating element (a character, a
170 multi-character sequence that collates as if it were a single character, or a
171 collating-sequence name for either) enclosed in <tt>[.</tt> and <tt>.]</tt>
172 stands for the sequence of characters of that collating element.
173
174 @e wxWidgets: Currently no multi-character collating elements are defined. So
175 in <tt>[.X.]</tt>, @c X can either be a single character literal or the name
176 of a character. For example, the following are both identical:
177 <tt>[[.0.]-[.9.]]</tt> and <tt>[[.zero.]-[.nine.]]</tt> and mean the same as
178 <tt>[0-9]</tt>. See @ref overview_resyntax_characters.
179
180 Within a bracket expression, a collating element enclosed in <tt>[=</tt> and
181 <tt>=]</tt> is an equivalence class, standing for the sequences of characters
182 of all collating elements equivalent to that one, including itself. An
183 equivalence class may not be an endpoint of a range.
184
185 @e wxWidgets: Currently no equivalence classes are defined, so <tt>[=X=]</tt>
186 stands for just the single character @c X. @c X can either be a single
187 character literal or the name of a character, see
188 @ref overview_resyntax_characters.
189
190 Within a bracket expression, the name of a @e character class enclosed in
191 <tt>[:</tt> and <tt>:]</tt> stands for the list of all characters (not all
192 collating elements!) belonging to that class. Standard character classes are:
193
194 @beginTable
195 @row2col{ <tt>alpha</tt> , A letter. }
196 @row2col{ <tt>upper</tt> , An upper-case letter. }
197 @row2col{ <tt>lower</tt> , A lower-case letter. }
198 @row2col{ <tt>digit</tt> , A decimal digit. }
199 @row2col{ <tt>xdigit</tt> , A hexadecimal digit. }
200 @row2col{ <tt>alnum</tt> , An alphanumeric (letter or digit). }
201 @row2col{ <tt>print</tt> , An alphanumeric (same as alnum). }
202 @row2col{ <tt>blank</tt> , A space or tab character. }
203 @row2col{ <tt>space</tt> , A character producing white space in displayed text. }
204 @row2col{ <tt>punct</tt> , A punctuation character. }
205 @row2col{ <tt>graph</tt> , A character with a visible representation. }
206 @row2col{ <tt>cntrl</tt> , A control character. }
207 @endTable
208
209 A character class may not be used as an endpoint of a range.
210
211 @e wxWidgets: In a non-Unicode build, these character classifications depend on
212 the current locale, and correspond to the values return by the ANSI C "is"
213 functions: <tt>isalpha</tt>, <tt>isupper</tt>, etc. In Unicode mode they are
214 based on Unicode classifications, and are not affected by the current locale.
215
216 There are two special cases of bracket expressions: the bracket expressions
217 <tt>[[:@<:]]</tt> and <tt>[[:@>:]]</tt> are constraints, matching empty strings at
218 the beginning and end of a word respectively. A word is defined as a sequence
219 of word characters that is neither preceded nor followed by word characters. A
220 word character is an @e alnum character or an underscore (_). These special
221 bracket expressions are deprecated; users of AREs should use constraint escapes
222 instead (see escapes below).
223
224
225 @section overview_resyntax_escapes Escapes
226
227 Escapes (AREs only), which begin with a <tt>@\</tt> followed by an alphanumeric
228 character, come in several varieties: character entry, class shorthands,
229 constraint escapes, and back references. A <tt>@\</tt> followed by an
230 alphanumeric character but not constituting a valid escape is illegal in AREs.
231 In EREs, there are no escapes: outside a bracket expression, a <tt>@\</tt>
232 followed by an alphanumeric character merely stands for that character as an
233 ordinary character, and inside a bracket expression, <tt>@\</tt> is an ordinary
234 character. (The latter is the one actual incompatibility between EREs and
235 AREs.)
236
237 Character-entry escapes (AREs only) exist to make it easier to specify
238 non-printing and otherwise inconvenient characters in REs:
239
240 @beginTable
241 @row2col{ <tt>@\a</tt> , Alert (bell) character, as in C. }
242 @row2col{ <tt>@\b</tt> , Backspace, as in C. }
243 @row2col{ <tt>@\B</tt> ,
244 Synonym for <tt>@\</tt> to help reduce backslash doubling in some
245 applications where there are multiple levels of backslash processing. }
246 @row2col{ <tt>@\cX</tt> ,
247 The character whose low-order 5 bits are the same as those of @e X, and
248 whose other bits are all zero, where @e X is any character. }
249 @row2col{ <tt>@\e</tt> ,
250 The character whose collating-sequence name is @c ESC, or failing that,
251 the character with octal value 033. }
252 @row2col{ <tt>@\f</tt> , Formfeed, as in C. }
253 @row2col{ <tt>@\n</tt> , Newline, as in C. }
254 @row2col{ <tt>@\r</tt> , Carriage return, as in C. }
255 @row2col{ <tt>@\t</tt> , Horizontal tab, as in C. }
256 @row2col{ <tt>@\uwxyz</tt> ,
257 The Unicode character <tt>U+wxyz</tt> in the local byte ordering, where
258 @e wxyz is exactly four hexadecimal digits. }
259 @row2col{ <tt>@\Ustuvwxyz</tt> ,
260 Reserved for a somewhat-hypothetical Unicode extension to 32 bits, where
261 @e stuvwxyz is exactly eight hexadecimal digits. }
262 @row2col{ <tt>@\v</tt> , Vertical tab, as in C are all available. }
263 @row2col{ <tt>@\xhhh</tt> ,
264 The single character whose hexadecimal value is @e 0xhhh, where @e hhh is
265 any sequence of hexadecimal digits. }
266 @row2col{ <tt>@\0</tt> , The character whose value is 0. }
267 @row2col{ <tt>@\xy</tt> ,
268 The character whose octal value is @e 0xy, where @e xy is exactly two octal
269 digits, and is not a <em>back reference</em> (see below). }
270 @row2col{ <tt>@\xyz</tt> ,
271 The character whose octal value is @e 0xyz, where @e xyz is exactly three
272 octal digits, and is not a <em>back reference</em> (see below). }
273 @endTable
274
275 Hexadecimal digits are 0-9, a-f, and A-F. Octal digits are 0-7.
276
277 The character-entry escapes are always taken as ordinary characters. For
278 example, <tt>@\135</tt> is <tt>]</tt> in ASCII, but <tt>@\135</tt> does not
279 terminate a bracket expression. Beware, however, that some applications (e.g.,
280 C compilers) interpret such sequences themselves before the regular-expression
281 package gets to see them, which may require doubling (quadrupling, etc.) the
282 '<tt>@\</tt>'.
283
284 Class-shorthand escapes (AREs only) provide shorthands for certain
285 commonly-used character classes:
286
287 @beginTable
288 @row2col{ <tt>@\d</tt> , <tt>[[:digit:]]</tt> }
289 @row2col{ <tt>@\s</tt> , <tt>[[:space:]]</tt> }
290 @row2col{ <tt>@\w</tt> , <tt>[[:alnum:]_]</tt> (note underscore) }
291 @row2col{ <tt>@\D</tt> , <tt>[^[:digit:]]</tt> }
292 @row2col{ <tt>@\S</tt> , <tt>[^[:space:]]</tt> }
293 @row2col{ <tt>@\W</tt> , <tt>[^[:alnum:]_]</tt> (note underscore) }
294 @endTable
295
296 Within bracket expressions, <tt>@\d</tt>, <tt>@\s</tt>, and <tt>@\w</tt> lose
297 their outer brackets, and <tt>@\D</tt>, <tt>@\S</tt>, <tt>@\W</tt> are illegal.
298 So, for example, <tt>[a-c@\d]</tt> is equivalent to <tt>[a-c[:digit:]]</tt>.
299 Also, <tt>[a-c@\D]</tt>, which is equivalent to <tt>[a-c^[:digit:]]</tt>, is
300 illegal.
301
302 A constraint escape (AREs only) is a constraint, matching the empty string if
303 specific conditions are met, written as an escape:
304
305 @beginTable
306 @row2col{ <tt>@\A</tt> , Matches only at the beginning of the string, see
307 @ref overview_resyntax_matching for how this differs
308 from <tt>^</tt>. }
309 @row2col{ <tt>@\m</tt> , Matches only at the beginning of a word. }
310 @row2col{ <tt>@\M</tt> , Matches only at the end of a word. }
311 @row2col{ <tt>@\y</tt> , Matches only at the beginning or end of a word. }
312 @row2col{ <tt>@\Y</tt> , Matches only at a point that is not the beginning or
313 end of a word. }
314 @row2col{ <tt>@\Z</tt> , Matches only at the end of the string, see
315 @ref overview_resyntax_matching for how this differs
316 from <tt>@$</tt>. }
317 @row2col{ <tt>@\m</tt> , A <em>back reference</em>, where @e m is a non-zero
318 digit. See below. }
319 @row2col{ <tt>@\mnn</tt> ,
320 A <em>back reference</em>, where @e m is a nonzero digit, and @e nn is some
321 more digits, and the decimal value @e mnn is not greater than the number of
322 closing capturing parentheses seen so far. See below. }
323 @endTable
324
325 A word is defined as in the specification of <tt>[[:@<:]]</tt> and
326 <tt>[[:>:]]</tt> above. Constraint escapes are illegal within bracket
327 expressions.
328
329 A back reference (AREs only) matches the same string matched by the
330 parenthesized subexpression specified by the number. For example, "([bc])\1"
331 matches "bb" or "cc" but not "bc". The subexpression must entirely precede the
332 back reference in the RE.Subexpressions are numbered in the order of their
333 leading parentheses. Non-capturing parentheses do not define subexpressions.
334
335 There is an inherent historical ambiguity between octal character-entry escapes
336 and back references, which is resolved by heuristics, as hinted at above. A
337 leading zero always indicates an octal escape. A single non-zero digit, not
338 followed by another digit, is always taken as a back reference. A multi-digit
339 sequence not starting with a zero is taken as a back reference if it comes
340 after a suitable subexpression (i.e. the number is in the legal range for a
341 back reference), and otherwise is taken as octal.
342
343
344 @section overview_resyntax_metasyntax Metasyntax
345
346 In addition to the main syntax described above,
347 there are some special forms and miscellaneous syntactic facilities available.
348 Normally the flavor of RE being used is specified by application-dependent
349 means. However, this can be overridden by a @e director. If an RE of any flavor
350 begins with '@b ***:', the rest of the RE is an ARE. If an RE of any flavor begins
351 with '@b ***=', the rest of the RE is taken to be a literal string, with all
352 characters considered ordinary characters.
353 An ARE may begin with @e embedded options: a sequence @b (?xyz)
354 (where @e xyz is one or more alphabetic characters)
355 specifies options affecting the rest of the RE. These supplement, and can
356 override, any options specified by the application. The available option
357 letters are:
358
359
360
361 @b b
362
363 rest of RE is a BRE
364
365 @b c
366
367 case-sensitive matching (usual default)
368
369 @b e
370
371 rest of RE is an ERE
372
373 @b i
374
375 case-insensitive matching (see #Matching, below)
376
377 @b m
378
379 historical synonym for @b n
380
381 @b n
382
383 newline-sensitive matching (see #Matching, below)
384
385 @b p
386
387 partial newline-sensitive matching (see #Matching, below)
388
389 @b q
390
391 rest of RE
392 is a literal ("quoted'') string, all ordinary characters
393
394 @b s
395
396 non-newline-sensitive matching (usual default)
397
398 @b t
399
400 tight syntax (usual default; see below)
401
402 @b w
403
404 inverse
405 partial newline-sensitive ("weird'') matching (see #Matching, below)
406
407 @b x
408
409 expanded syntax (see below)
410
411
412
413 Embedded options take effect at the @b ) terminating the
414 sequence. They are available only at the start of an ARE, and may not be
415 used later within it.
416 In addition to the usual (@e tight) RE syntax, in which
417 all characters are significant, there is an @e expanded syntax, available
418 in AREs with the embedded
419 x option. In the expanded syntax, white-space characters are ignored and
420 all characters between a @b # and the following newline (or the end of the
421 RE) are ignored, permitting paragraphing and commenting a complex RE. There
422 are three exceptions to that basic rule:
423
424
425 a white-space character or '@b #' preceded
426 by '@b \' is retained
427 white space or '@b #' within a bracket expression is retained
428 white space and comments are illegal within multi-character symbols like
429 the ARE '@b (?:' or the BRE '@b \('
430
431
432 Expanded-syntax white-space characters are blank,
433 tab, newline, and any character that belongs to the @e space character class.
434 Finally, in an ARE, outside bracket expressions, the sequence '@b (?#ttt)' (where
435 @e ttt is any text not containing a '@b )') is a comment, completely ignored. Again,
436 this is not allowed between the characters of multi-character symbols like
437 '@b (?:'. Such comments are more a historical artifact than a useful facility,
438 and their use is deprecated; use the expanded syntax instead.
439 @e None of these
440 metasyntax extensions is available if the application (or an initial @b ***=
441 director) has specified that the user's input be treated as a literal string
442 rather than as an RE.
443
444
445 @section overview_resyntax_matching Matching
446
447 In the event that an RE could match more than
448 one substring of a given string, the RE matches the one starting earliest
449 in the string. If the RE could match more than one substring starting at
450 that point, its choice is determined by its @e preference: either the longest
451 substring, or the shortest.
452 Most atoms, and all constraints, have no preference.
453 A parenthesized RE has the same preference (possibly none) as the RE. A
454 quantified atom with quantifier @b {m} or @b {m}? has the same preference (possibly
455 none) as the atom itself. A quantified atom with other normal quantifiers
456 (including @b {m,n} with @e m equal to @e n) prefers longest match. A quantified
457 atom with other non-greedy quantifiers (including @b {m,n}? with @e m equal to
458 @e n) prefers shortest match. A branch has the same preference as the first
459 quantified atom in it which has a preference. An RE consisting of two or
460 more branches connected by the @b | operator prefers longest match.
461 Subject to the constraints imposed by the rules for matching the whole RE, subexpressions
462 also match the longest or shortest possible substrings, based on their
463 preferences, with subexpressions starting earlier in the RE taking priority
464 over ones starting later. Note that outer subexpressions thus take priority
465 over their component subexpressions.
466 Note that the quantifiers @b {1,1} and
467 @b {1,1}? can be used to force longest and shortest preference, respectively,
468 on a subexpression or a whole RE.
469 Match lengths are measured in characters,
470 not collating elements. An empty string is considered longer than no match
471 at all. For example, @b bb* matches the three middle characters
472 of '@b abbbc', @b (week|wee)(night|knights)
473 matches all ten characters of '@b weeknights', when @b (.*).* is matched against
474 @b abc the parenthesized subexpression matches all three characters, and when
475 @b (a*)* is matched against @b bc both the whole RE and the parenthesized subexpression
476 match an empty string.
477 If case-independent matching is specified, the effect
478 is much as if all case distinctions had vanished from the alphabet. When
479 an alphabetic that exists in multiple cases appears as an ordinary character
480 outside a bracket expression, it is effectively transformed into a bracket
481 expression containing both cases, so that @b x becomes '@b [xX]'. When it appears
482 inside a bracket expression, all case counterparts of it are added to the
483 bracket expression, so that @b [x] becomes @b [xX] and @b [^x] becomes '@b [^xX]'.
484 If newline-sensitive
485 matching is specified, @b . and bracket expressions using @b ^ will never match
486 the newline character (so that matches will never cross newlines unless
487 the RE explicitly arranges it) and @b ^ and @b $ will match the empty string after
488 and before a newline respectively, in addition to matching at beginning
489 and end of string respectively. ARE @b \A and @b \Z continue to match beginning
490 or end of string @e only.
491 If partial newline-sensitive matching is specified,
492 this affects @b . and bracket expressions as with newline-sensitive matching,
493 but not @b ^ and '@b $'.
494 If inverse partial newline-sensitive matching is specified,
495 this affects @b ^ and @b $ as with newline-sensitive matching, but not @b . and bracket
496 expressions. This isn't very useful but is provided for symmetry.
497
498
499 @section overview_resyntax_limits Limits and Compatibility
500
501 No particular limit is imposed on the length of REs. Programs
502 intended to be highly portable should not employ REs longer than 256 bytes,
503 as a POSIX-compliant implementation can refuse to accept such REs.
504 The only
505 feature of AREs that is actually incompatible with POSIX EREs is that @b \
506 does not lose its special significance inside bracket expressions. All other
507 ARE features use syntax which is illegal or has undefined or unspecified
508 effects in POSIX EREs; the @b *** syntax of directors likewise is outside
509 the POSIX syntax for both BREs and EREs.
510 Many of the ARE extensions are
511 borrowed from Perl, but some have been changed to clean them up, and a
512 few Perl extensions are not present. Incompatibilities of note include '@b \b',
513 '@b \B', the lack of special treatment for a trailing newline, the addition of
514 complemented bracket expressions to the things affected by newline-sensitive
515 matching, the restrictions on parentheses and back references in lookahead
516 constraints, and the longest/shortest-match (rather than first-match) matching
517 semantics.
518 The matching rules for REs containing both normal and non-greedy
519 quantifiers have changed since early beta-test versions of this package.
520 (The new rules are much simpler and cleaner, but don't work as hard at guessing
521 the user's real intentions.)
522 Henry Spencer's original 1986 @e regexp package, still in widespread use,
523 implemented an early version of today's EREs. There are four incompatibilities between @e regexp's
524 near-EREs ('RREs' for short) and AREs. In roughly increasing order of significance:
525
526 In AREs, @b \ followed by an alphanumeric character is either an escape or
527 an error, while in RREs, it was just another way of writing the alphanumeric.
528 This should not be a problem because there was no reason to write such
529 a sequence in RREs.
530 @b { followed by a digit in an ARE is the beginning of
531 a bound, while in RREs, @b { was always an ordinary character. Such sequences
532 should be rare, and will often result in an error because following characters
533 will not look like a valid bound.
534 In AREs, @b \ remains a special character
535 within '@b []', so a literal @b \ within @b [] must be
536 written '@b \\'. @b \\ also gives a literal
537 @b \ within @b [] in RREs, but only truly paranoid programmers routinely doubled
538 the backslash.
539 AREs report the longest/shortest match for the RE, rather
540 than the first found in a specified search order. This may affect some RREs
541 which were written in the expectation that the first match would be reported.
542 (The careful crafting of RREs to optimize the search order for fast matching
543 is obsolete (AREs examine all possible matches in parallel, and their performance
544 is largely insensitive to their complexity) but cases where the search
545 order was exploited to deliberately find a match which was @e not the longest/shortest
546 will need rewriting.)
547
548
549 @section overview_resyntax_bre Basic Regular Expressions
550
551 BREs differ from EREs in
552 several respects. '@b |', '@b +', and @b ? are ordinary characters and there is no equivalent
553 for their functionality. The delimiters for bounds
554 are @b \{ and '@b \}', with @b { and
555 @b } by themselves ordinary characters. The parentheses for nested subexpressions
556 are @b \( and '@b \)', with @b ( and @b ) by themselves
557 ordinary characters. @b ^ is an ordinary
558 character except at the beginning of the RE or the beginning of a parenthesized
559 subexpression, @b $ is an ordinary character except at the end of the RE or
560 the end of a parenthesized subexpression, and @b * is an ordinary character
561 if it appears at the beginning of the RE or the beginning of a parenthesized
562 subexpression (after a possible leading '@b ^'). Finally, single-digit back references
563 are available, and @b \ and @b \ are synonyms
564 for <tt>[[:@<:]]</tt> and <tt>[[:@>:]]</tt> respectively;
565 no other escapes are available.
566
567
568 @section overview_resyntax_characters Regular Expression Character Names
569
570 Note that the character names are case sensitive.
571
572 <center><table class='doctable' border='0' cellspacing='5' cellpadding='4'><tr>
573
574 <td>
575 @beginTable
576 @row2col{ <tt>NUL</tt> , @\0 }
577 @row2col{ <tt>SOH</tt> , @\001 }
578 @row2col{ <tt>STX</tt> , @\002 }
579 @row2col{ <tt>ETX</tt> , @\003 }
580 @row2col{ <tt>EOT</tt> , @\004 }
581 @row2col{ <tt>ENQ</tt> , @\005 }
582 @row2col{ <tt>ACK</tt> , @\006 }
583 @row2col{ <tt>BEL</tt> , @\007 }
584 @row2col{ <tt>alert</tt> , @\007 }
585 @row2col{ <tt>BS</tt> , @\010 }
586 @row2col{ <tt>backspace</tt> , @\b }
587 @row2col{ <tt>HT</tt> , @\011 }
588 @row2col{ <tt>tab</tt> , @\t }
589 @row2col{ <tt>LF</tt> , @\012 }
590 @row2col{ <tt>newline</tt> , @\n }
591 @row2col{ <tt>VT</tt> , @\013 }
592 @row2col{ <tt>vertical-tab</tt> , @\v }
593 @row2col{ <tt>FF</tt> , @\014 }
594 @row2col{ <tt>form-feed</tt> , @\f }
595 @endTable
596 </td>
597
598 <td>
599 @beginTable
600 @row2col{ <tt>CR</tt> , @\015 }
601 @row2col{ <tt>carriage-return</tt> , @\r }
602 @row2col{ <tt>SO</tt> , @\016 }
603 @row2col{ <tt>SI</tt> , @\017 }
604 @row2col{ <tt>DLE</tt> , @\020 }
605 @row2col{ <tt>DC1</tt> , @\021 }
606 @row2col{ <tt>DC2</tt> , @\022 }
607 @row2col{ <tt>DC3</tt> , @\023 }
608 @row2col{ <tt>DC4</tt> , @\024 }
609 @row2col{ <tt>NAK</tt> , @\025 }
610 @row2col{ <tt>SYN</tt> , @\026 }
611 @row2col{ <tt>ETB</tt> , @\027 }
612 @row2col{ <tt>CAN</tt> , @\030 }
613 @row2col{ <tt>EM</tt> , @\031 }
614 @row2col{ <tt>SUB</tt> , @\032 }
615 @row2col{ <tt>ESC</tt> , @\033 }
616 @row2col{ <tt>IS4</tt> , @\034 }
617 @row2col{ <tt>FS</tt> , @\034 }
618 @row2col{ <tt>IS3</tt> , @\035 }
619 @endTable
620 </td>
621
622 <td>
623 @beginTable
624 @row2col{ <tt>GS</tt> , @\035 }
625 @row2col{ <tt>IS2</tt> , @\036 }
626 @row2col{ <tt>RS</tt> , @\036 }
627 @row2col{ <tt>IS1</tt> , @\037 }
628 @row2col{ <tt>US</tt> , @\037 }
629 @row2col{ <tt>space</tt> , " " (space) }
630 @row2col{ <tt>exclamation-mark</tt> , ! }
631 @row2col{ <tt>quotation-mark</tt> , " }
632 @row2col{ <tt>number-sign</tt> , @# }
633 @row2col{ <tt>dollar-sign</tt> , @$ }
634 @row2col{ <tt>percent-sign</tt> , @% }
635 @row2col{ <tt>ampersand</tt> , @& }
636 @row2col{ <tt>apostrophe</tt> , ' }
637 @row2col{ <tt>left-parenthesis</tt> , ( }
638 @row2col{ <tt>right-parenthesis</tt> , ) }
639 @row2col{ <tt>asterisk</tt> , * }
640 @row2col{ <tt>plus-sign</tt> , + }
641 @row2col{ <tt>comma</tt> , \, }
642 @row2col{ <tt>hyphen</tt> , - }
643 @endTable
644 </td>
645
646 <td>
647 @beginTable
648 @row2col{ <tt>hyphen-minus</tt> , - }
649 @row2col{ <tt>period</tt> , . }
650 @row2col{ <tt>full-stop</tt> , . }
651 @row2col{ <tt>slash</tt> , / }
652 @row2col{ <tt>solidus</tt> , / }
653 @row2col{ <tt>zero</tt> , 0 }
654 @row2col{ <tt>one</tt> , 1 }
655 @row2col{ <tt>two</tt> , 2 }
656 @row2col{ <tt>three</tt> , 3 }
657 @row2col{ <tt>four</tt> , 4 }
658 @row2col{ <tt>five</tt> , 5 }
659 @row2col{ <tt>six</tt> , 6 }
660 @row2col{ <tt>seven</tt> , 7 }
661 @row2col{ <tt>eight</tt> , 8 }
662 @row2col{ <tt>nine</tt> , 9 }
663 @row2col{ <tt>colon</tt> , : }
664 @row2col{ <tt>semicolon</tt> , ; }
665 @row2col{ <tt>less-than-sign</tt> , @< }
666 @row2col{ <tt>equals-sign</tt> , = }
667 @endTable
668 </td>
669
670 <td>
671 @beginTable
672 @row2col{ <tt>greater-than-sign</tt> , @> }
673 @row2col{ <tt>question-mark</tt> , ? }
674 @row2col{ <tt>commercial-at</tt> , @@ }
675 @row2col{ <tt>left-square-bracket</tt> , [ }
676 @row2col{ <tt>backslash</tt> , @\ }
677 @row2col{ <tt>reverse-solidus</tt> , @\ }
678 @row2col{ <tt>right-square-bracket</tt> , ] }
679 @row2col{ <tt>circumflex</tt> , ^ }
680 @row2col{ <tt>circumflex-accent</tt> , ^ }
681 @row2col{ <tt>underscore</tt> , _ }
682 @row2col{ <tt>low-line</tt> , _ }
683 @row2col{ <tt>grave-accent</tt> , ' }
684 @row2col{ <tt>left-brace</tt> , @leftCurly }
685 @row2col{ <tt>left-curly-bracket</tt> , @leftCurly }
686 @row2col{ <tt>vertical-line</tt> , | }
687 @row2col{ <tt>right-brace</tt> , @rightCurly }
688 @row2col{ <tt>right-curly-bracket</tt> , @rightCurly }
689 @row2col{ <tt>tilde</tt> , ~ }
690 @row2col{ <tt>DEL</tt> , @\177 }
691 @endTable
692 </td>
693
694 </tr></table></center>
695
696 */
697