Regualr Expression Puzzle

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Ken - 21 Feb 2007 16:18 GMT

Here's my pattern: "\\b[A-Z]([A-Z0-9]|([+-_/&](?=[A-Z0-9])))+\\b"

This pattern finds the string F1.3 . For the life of me I can't figure
out how the dot gets sucked in. Seems like it should find F1 . Can
someone explain?

Ken

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Ben - 21 Feb 2007 16:47 GMT

> Here's my pattern: "\\b[A-Z]([A-Z0-9]|([+-_/&](?=[A-Z0-9])))+\\b"
>
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
>
> Ken

"[+-_/&]" is the set '+' to '_' plus '/' plus '&'. I'm not sure what you
are doing but you probably mean "[-+_/&]" .

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Oliver Wong - 21 Feb 2007 16:49 GMT

> Here's my pattern: "\\b[A-Z]([A-Z0-9]|([+-_/&](?=[A-Z0-9])))+\\b"
>
> This pattern finds the string F1.3 . For the life of me I can't figure
> out how the dot gets sucked in. Seems like it should find F1 . Can
> someone explain?

Did you mean:

"\\b[A-Z]([A-Z0-9]|([+\\-_/&](?=[A-Z0-9])))+\\b"

?

- Oliver

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ultimadj - 21 Feb 2007 21:47 GMT

> Here's my pattern: "\\b[A-Z]([A-Z0-9]|([+-_/&](?=[A-Z0-9])))+\\b"
>
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
>
> Ken

Hey Ken,
The period character is 0x46. In your expression, you stated '[+-_'
which means "match any character between '+' (0x43) and '_' (0x95)".
Since '.' (0x46) is within this range, it gets matched. '-' and '+'
should be escaped, though switching the order like Oliver did
obviously works as well.

Here's a great resource for understanding how the regex engines work:
http://www.regular-expressions.info

If this is helpful, please rate my post. :)

:D avid

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Regualr Expression Puzzle

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