2954 lines
125 KiB
HTML
2954 lines
125 KiB
HTML
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<html>
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<head>
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<title>pcrepattern specification</title>
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</head>
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<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#00005A" link="#0066FF" alink="#3399FF" vlink="#2222BB">
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<h1>pcrepattern man page</h1>
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<p>
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Return to the <a href="index.html">PCRE index page</a>.
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</p>
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<p>
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This page is part of the PCRE HTML documentation. It was generated automatically
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from the original man page. If there is any nonsense in it, please consult the
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man page, in case the conversion went wrong.
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<br>
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<ul>
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<li><a name="TOC1" href="#SEC1">PCRE REGULAR EXPRESSION DETAILS</a>
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<li><a name="TOC2" href="#SEC2">EBCDIC CHARACTER CODES</a>
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<li><a name="TOC3" href="#SEC3">NEWLINE CONVENTIONS</a>
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<li><a name="TOC4" href="#SEC4">CHARACTERS AND METACHARACTERS</a>
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<li><a name="TOC5" href="#SEC5">BACKSLASH</a>
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<li><a name="TOC6" href="#SEC6">CIRCUMFLEX AND DOLLAR</a>
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<li><a name="TOC7" href="#SEC7">FULL STOP (PERIOD, DOT) AND \N</a>
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<li><a name="TOC8" href="#SEC8">MATCHING A SINGLE DATA UNIT</a>
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<li><a name="TOC9" href="#SEC9">SQUARE BRACKETS AND CHARACTER CLASSES</a>
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<li><a name="TOC10" href="#SEC10">POSIX CHARACTER CLASSES</a>
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<li><a name="TOC11" href="#SEC11">VERTICAL BAR</a>
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<li><a name="TOC12" href="#SEC12">INTERNAL OPTION SETTING</a>
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<li><a name="TOC13" href="#SEC13">SUBPATTERNS</a>
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<li><a name="TOC14" href="#SEC14">DUPLICATE SUBPATTERN NUMBERS</a>
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<li><a name="TOC15" href="#SEC15">NAMED SUBPATTERNS</a>
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<li><a name="TOC16" href="#SEC16">REPETITION</a>
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<li><a name="TOC17" href="#SEC17">ATOMIC GROUPING AND POSSESSIVE QUANTIFIERS</a>
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<li><a name="TOC18" href="#SEC18">BACK REFERENCES</a>
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<li><a name="TOC19" href="#SEC19">ASSERTIONS</a>
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<li><a name="TOC20" href="#SEC20">CONDITIONAL SUBPATTERNS</a>
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<li><a name="TOC21" href="#SEC21">COMMENTS</a>
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<li><a name="TOC22" href="#SEC22">RECURSIVE PATTERNS</a>
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<li><a name="TOC23" href="#SEC23">SUBPATTERNS AS SUBROUTINES</a>
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<li><a name="TOC24" href="#SEC24">ONIGURUMA SUBROUTINE SYNTAX</a>
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<li><a name="TOC25" href="#SEC25">CALLOUTS</a>
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<li><a name="TOC26" href="#SEC26">BACKTRACKING CONTROL</a>
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<li><a name="TOC27" href="#SEC27">SEE ALSO</a>
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<li><a name="TOC28" href="#SEC28">AUTHOR</a>
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<li><a name="TOC29" href="#SEC29">REVISION</a>
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</ul>
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<br><a name="SEC1" href="#TOC1">PCRE REGULAR EXPRESSION DETAILS</a><br>
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<P>
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The syntax and semantics of the regular expressions that are supported by PCRE
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are described in detail below. There is a quick-reference syntax summary in the
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<a href="pcresyntax.html"><b>pcresyntax</b></a>
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page. PCRE tries to match Perl syntax and semantics as closely as it can. PCRE
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also supports some alternative regular expression syntax (which does not
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conflict with the Perl syntax) in order to provide some compatibility with
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regular expressions in Python, .NET, and Oniguruma.
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</P>
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<P>
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Perl's regular expressions are described in its own documentation, and
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regular expressions in general are covered in a number of books, some of which
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have copious examples. Jeffrey Friedl's "Mastering Regular Expressions",
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published by O'Reilly, covers regular expressions in great detail. This
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description of PCRE's regular expressions is intended as reference material.
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</P>
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<P>
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The original operation of PCRE was on strings of one-byte characters. However,
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there is now also support for UTF-8 strings in the original library, an
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extra library that supports 16-bit and UTF-16 character strings, and a
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third library that supports 32-bit and UTF-32 character strings. To use these
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features, PCRE must be built to include appropriate support. When using UTF
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strings you must either call the compiling function with the PCRE_UTF8,
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PCRE_UTF16, or PCRE_UTF32 option, or the pattern must start with one of
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these special sequences:
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<pre>
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(*UTF8)
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(*UTF16)
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(*UTF32)
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(*UTF)
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</pre>
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(*UTF) is a generic sequence that can be used with any of the libraries.
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Starting a pattern with such a sequence is equivalent to setting the relevant
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option. This feature is not Perl-compatible. How setting a UTF mode affects
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pattern matching is mentioned in several places below. There is also a summary
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of features in the
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<a href="pcreunicode.html"><b>pcreunicode</b></a>
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page.
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</P>
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<P>
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Another special sequence that may appear at the start of a pattern or in
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combination with (*UTF8), (*UTF16), (*UTF32) or (*UTF) is:
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<pre>
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(*UCP)
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</pre>
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This has the same effect as setting the PCRE_UCP option: it causes sequences
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such as \d and \w to use Unicode properties to determine character types,
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instead of recognizing only characters with codes less than 128 via a lookup
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table.
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</P>
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<P>
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If a pattern starts with (*NO_START_OPT), it has the same effect as setting the
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PCRE_NO_START_OPTIMIZE option either at compile or matching time. There are
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also some more of these special sequences that are concerned with the handling
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of newlines; they are described below.
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</P>
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<P>
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The remainder of this document discusses the patterns that are supported by
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PCRE when one its main matching functions, <b>pcre_exec()</b> (8-bit) or
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<b>pcre[16|32]_exec()</b> (16- or 32-bit), is used. PCRE also has alternative
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matching functions, <b>pcre_dfa_exec()</b> and <b>pcre[16|32_dfa_exec()</b>,
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which match using a different algorithm that is not Perl-compatible. Some of
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the features discussed below are not available when DFA matching is used. The
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advantages and disadvantages of the alternative functions, and how they differ
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from the normal functions, are discussed in the
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<a href="pcrematching.html"><b>pcrematching</b></a>
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page.
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</P>
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<br><a name="SEC2" href="#TOC1">EBCDIC CHARACTER CODES</a><br>
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<P>
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PCRE can be compiled to run in an environment that uses EBCDIC as its character
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code rather than ASCII or Unicode (typically a mainframe system). In the
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sections below, character code values are ASCII or Unicode; in an EBCDIC
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environment these characters may have different code values, and there are no
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code points greater than 255.
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<a name="newlines"></a></P>
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<br><a name="SEC3" href="#TOC1">NEWLINE CONVENTIONS</a><br>
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<P>
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PCRE supports five different conventions for indicating line breaks in
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strings: a single CR (carriage return) character, a single LF (linefeed)
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character, the two-character sequence CRLF, any of the three preceding, or any
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Unicode newline sequence. The
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<a href="pcreapi.html"><b>pcreapi</b></a>
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page has
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<a href="pcreapi.html#newlines">further discussion</a>
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about newlines, and shows how to set the newline convention in the
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<i>options</i> arguments for the compiling and matching functions.
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</P>
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<P>
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It is also possible to specify a newline convention by starting a pattern
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string with one of the following five sequences:
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<pre>
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(*CR) carriage return
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(*LF) linefeed
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(*CRLF) carriage return, followed by linefeed
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(*ANYCRLF) any of the three above
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(*ANY) all Unicode newline sequences
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</pre>
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These override the default and the options given to the compiling function. For
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example, on a Unix system where LF is the default newline sequence, the pattern
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<pre>
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(*CR)a.b
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</pre>
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changes the convention to CR. That pattern matches "a\nb" because LF is no
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longer a newline. Note that these special settings, which are not
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Perl-compatible, are recognized only at the very start of a pattern, and that
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they must be in upper case. If more than one of them is present, the last one
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is used.
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</P>
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<P>
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The newline convention affects where the circumflex and dollar assertions are
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true. It also affects the interpretation of the dot metacharacter when
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PCRE_DOTALL is not set, and the behaviour of \N. However, it does not affect
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what the \R escape sequence matches. By default, this is any Unicode newline
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sequence, for Perl compatibility. However, this can be changed; see the
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description of \R in the section entitled
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<a href="#newlineseq">"Newline sequences"</a>
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below. A change of \R setting can be combined with a change of newline
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convention.
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</P>
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<br><a name="SEC4" href="#TOC1">CHARACTERS AND METACHARACTERS</a><br>
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<P>
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A regular expression is a pattern that is matched against a subject string from
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left to right. Most characters stand for themselves in a pattern, and match the
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corresponding characters in the subject. As a trivial example, the pattern
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<pre>
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The quick brown fox
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</pre>
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matches a portion of a subject string that is identical to itself. When
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caseless matching is specified (the PCRE_CASELESS option), letters are matched
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independently of case. In a UTF mode, PCRE always understands the concept of
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case for characters whose values are less than 128, so caseless matching is
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always possible. For characters with higher values, the concept of case is
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supported if PCRE is compiled with Unicode property support, but not otherwise.
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If you want to use caseless matching for characters 128 and above, you must
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ensure that PCRE is compiled with Unicode property support as well as with
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UTF support.
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</P>
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<P>
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The power of regular expressions comes from the ability to include alternatives
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and repetitions in the pattern. These are encoded in the pattern by the use of
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<i>metacharacters</i>, which do not stand for themselves but instead are
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interpreted in some special way.
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</P>
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<P>
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There are two different sets of metacharacters: those that are recognized
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anywhere in the pattern except within square brackets, and those that are
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recognized within square brackets. Outside square brackets, the metacharacters
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are as follows:
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<pre>
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\ general escape character with several uses
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^ assert start of string (or line, in multiline mode)
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$ assert end of string (or line, in multiline mode)
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. match any character except newline (by default)
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[ start character class definition
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| start of alternative branch
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( start subpattern
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) end subpattern
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? extends the meaning of (
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also 0 or 1 quantifier
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also quantifier minimizer
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* 0 or more quantifier
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+ 1 or more quantifier
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also "possessive quantifier"
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{ start min/max quantifier
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</pre>
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Part of a pattern that is in square brackets is called a "character class". In
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a character class the only metacharacters are:
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<pre>
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\ general escape character
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^ negate the class, but only if the first character
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- indicates character range
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[ POSIX character class (only if followed by POSIX syntax)
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] terminates the character class
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</pre>
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The following sections describe the use of each of the metacharacters.
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</P>
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<br><a name="SEC5" href="#TOC1">BACKSLASH</a><br>
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<P>
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The backslash character has several uses. Firstly, if it is followed by a
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character that is not a number or a letter, it takes away any special meaning
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that character may have. This use of backslash as an escape character applies
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both inside and outside character classes.
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</P>
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<P>
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For example, if you want to match a * character, you write \* in the pattern.
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This escaping action applies whether or not the following character would
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otherwise be interpreted as a metacharacter, so it is always safe to precede a
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non-alphanumeric with backslash to specify that it stands for itself. In
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particular, if you want to match a backslash, you write \\.
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</P>
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<P>
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In a UTF mode, only ASCII numbers and letters have any special meaning after a
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backslash. All other characters (in particular, those whose codepoints are
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greater than 127) are treated as literals.
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</P>
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<P>
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If a pattern is compiled with the PCRE_EXTENDED option, white space in the
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pattern (other than in a character class) and characters between a # outside
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a character class and the next newline are ignored. An escaping backslash can
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be used to include a white space or # character as part of the pattern.
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</P>
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<P>
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If you want to remove the special meaning from a sequence of characters, you
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can do so by putting them between \Q and \E. This is different from Perl in
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that $ and @ are handled as literals in \Q...\E sequences in PCRE, whereas in
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Perl, $ and @ cause variable interpolation. Note the following examples:
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<pre>
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Pattern PCRE matches Perl matches
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\Qabc$xyz\E abc$xyz abc followed by the contents of $xyz
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\Qabc\$xyz\E abc\$xyz abc\$xyz
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\Qabc\E\$\Qxyz\E abc$xyz abc$xyz
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</pre>
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The \Q...\E sequence is recognized both inside and outside character classes.
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An isolated \E that is not preceded by \Q is ignored. If \Q is not followed
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by \E later in the pattern, the literal interpretation continues to the end of
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the pattern (that is, \E is assumed at the end). If the isolated \Q is inside
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a character class, this causes an error, because the character class is not
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terminated.
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<a name="digitsafterbackslash"></a></P>
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<br><b>
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Non-printing characters
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</b><br>
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<P>
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A second use of backslash provides a way of encoding non-printing characters
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in patterns in a visible manner. There is no restriction on the appearance of
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non-printing characters, apart from the binary zero that terminates a pattern,
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but when a pattern is being prepared by text editing, it is often easier to use
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one of the following escape sequences than the binary character it represents:
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<pre>
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\a alarm, that is, the BEL character (hex 07)
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\cx "control-x", where x is any ASCII character
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\e escape (hex 1B)
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\f form feed (hex 0C)
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\n linefeed (hex 0A)
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\r carriage return (hex 0D)
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\t tab (hex 09)
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\ddd character with octal code ddd, or back reference
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\xhh character with hex code hh
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\x{hhh..} character with hex code hhh.. (non-JavaScript mode)
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\uhhhh character with hex code hhhh (JavaScript mode only)
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</pre>
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The precise effect of \cx on ASCII characters is as follows: if x is a lower
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case letter, it is converted to upper case. Then bit 6 of the character (hex
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40) is inverted. Thus \cA to \cZ become hex 01 to hex 1A (A is 41, Z is 5A),
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but \c{ becomes hex 3B ({ is 7B), and \c; becomes hex 7B (; is 3B). If the
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data item (byte or 16-bit value) following \c has a value greater than 127, a
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compile-time error occurs. This locks out non-ASCII characters in all modes.
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</P>
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<P>
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The \c facility was designed for use with ASCII characters, but with the
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extension to Unicode it is even less useful than it once was. It is, however,
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recognized when PCRE is compiled in EBCDIC mode, where data items are always
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bytes. In this mode, all values are valid after \c. If the next character is a
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lower case letter, it is converted to upper case. Then the 0xc0 bits of the
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byte are inverted. Thus \cA becomes hex 01, as in ASCII (A is C1), but because
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the EBCDIC letters are disjoint, \cZ becomes hex 29 (Z is E9), and other
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characters also generate different values.
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</P>
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<P>
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By default, after \x, from zero to two hexadecimal digits are read (letters
|
||
|
|
can be in upper or lower case). Any number of hexadecimal digits may appear
|
||
|
|
between \x{ and }, but the character code is constrained as follows:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
8-bit non-UTF mode less than 0x100
|
||
|
|
8-bit UTF-8 mode less than 0x10ffff and a valid codepoint
|
||
|
|
16-bit non-UTF mode less than 0x10000
|
||
|
|
16-bit UTF-16 mode less than 0x10ffff and a valid codepoint
|
||
|
|
32-bit non-UTF mode less than 0x80000000
|
||
|
|
32-bit UTF-32 mode less than 0x10ffff and a valid codepoint
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
Invalid Unicode codepoints are the range 0xd800 to 0xdfff (the so-called
|
||
|
|
"surrogate" codepoints), and 0xffef.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
If characters other than hexadecimal digits appear between \x{ and }, or if
|
||
|
|
there is no terminating }, this form of escape is not recognized. Instead, the
|
||
|
|
initial \x will be interpreted as a basic hexadecimal escape, with no
|
||
|
|
following digits, giving a character whose value is zero.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
If the PCRE_JAVASCRIPT_COMPAT option is set, the interpretation of \x is
|
||
|
|
as just described only when it is followed by two hexadecimal digits.
|
||
|
|
Otherwise, it matches a literal "x" character. In JavaScript mode, support for
|
||
|
|
code points greater than 256 is provided by \u, which must be followed by
|
||
|
|
four hexadecimal digits; otherwise it matches a literal "u" character.
|
||
|
|
Character codes specified by \u in JavaScript mode are constrained in the same
|
||
|
|
was as those specified by \x in non-JavaScript mode.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Characters whose value is less than 256 can be defined by either of the two
|
||
|
|
syntaxes for \x (or by \u in JavaScript mode). There is no difference in the
|
||
|
|
way they are handled. For example, \xdc is exactly the same as \x{dc} (or
|
||
|
|
\u00dc in JavaScript mode).
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
After \0 up to two further octal digits are read. If there are fewer than two
|
||
|
|
digits, just those that are present are used. Thus the sequence \0\x\07
|
||
|
|
specifies two binary zeros followed by a BEL character (code value 7). Make
|
||
|
|
sure you supply two digits after the initial zero if the pattern character that
|
||
|
|
follows is itself an octal digit.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
The handling of a backslash followed by a digit other than 0 is complicated.
|
||
|
|
Outside a character class, PCRE reads it and any following digits as a decimal
|
||
|
|
number. If the number is less than 10, or if there have been at least that many
|
||
|
|
previous capturing left parentheses in the expression, the entire sequence is
|
||
|
|
taken as a <i>back reference</i>. A description of how this works is given
|
||
|
|
<a href="#backreferences">later,</a>
|
||
|
|
following the discussion of
|
||
|
|
<a href="#subpattern">parenthesized subpatterns.</a>
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Inside a character class, or if the decimal number is greater than 9 and there
|
||
|
|
have not been that many capturing subpatterns, PCRE re-reads up to three octal
|
||
|
|
digits following the backslash, and uses them to generate a data character. Any
|
||
|
|
subsequent digits stand for themselves. The value of the character is
|
||
|
|
constrained in the same way as characters specified in hexadecimal.
|
||
|
|
For example:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
\040 is another way of writing an ASCII space
|
||
|
|
\40 is the same, provided there are fewer than 40 previous capturing subpatterns
|
||
|
|
\7 is always a back reference
|
||
|
|
\11 might be a back reference, or another way of writing a tab
|
||
|
|
\011 is always a tab
|
||
|
|
\0113 is a tab followed by the character "3"
|
||
|
|
\113 might be a back reference, otherwise the character with octal code 113
|
||
|
|
\377 might be a back reference, otherwise the value 255 (decimal)
|
||
|
|
\81 is either a back reference, or a binary zero followed by the two characters "8" and "1"
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
Note that octal values of 100 or greater must not be introduced by a leading
|
||
|
|
zero, because no more than three octal digits are ever read.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
All the sequences that define a single character value can be used both inside
|
||
|
|
and outside character classes. In addition, inside a character class, \b is
|
||
|
|
interpreted as the backspace character (hex 08).
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
\N is not allowed in a character class. \B, \R, and \X are not special
|
||
|
|
inside a character class. Like other unrecognized escape sequences, they are
|
||
|
|
treated as the literal characters "B", "R", and "X" by default, but cause an
|
||
|
|
error if the PCRE_EXTRA option is set. Outside a character class, these
|
||
|
|
sequences have different meanings.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<br><b>
|
||
|
|
Unsupported escape sequences
|
||
|
|
</b><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
In Perl, the sequences \l, \L, \u, and \U are recognized by its string
|
||
|
|
handler and used to modify the case of following characters. By default, PCRE
|
||
|
|
does not support these escape sequences. However, if the PCRE_JAVASCRIPT_COMPAT
|
||
|
|
option is set, \U matches a "U" character, and \u can be used to define a
|
||
|
|
character by code point, as described in the previous section.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<br><b>
|
||
|
|
Absolute and relative back references
|
||
|
|
</b><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
The sequence \g followed by an unsigned or a negative number, optionally
|
||
|
|
enclosed in braces, is an absolute or relative back reference. A named back
|
||
|
|
reference can be coded as \g{name}. Back references are discussed
|
||
|
|
<a href="#backreferences">later,</a>
|
||
|
|
following the discussion of
|
||
|
|
<a href="#subpattern">parenthesized subpatterns.</a>
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<br><b>
|
||
|
|
Absolute and relative subroutine calls
|
||
|
|
</b><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
For compatibility with Oniguruma, the non-Perl syntax \g followed by a name or
|
||
|
|
a number enclosed either in angle brackets or single quotes, is an alternative
|
||
|
|
syntax for referencing a subpattern as a "subroutine". Details are discussed
|
||
|
|
<a href="#onigurumasubroutines">later.</a>
|
||
|
|
Note that \g{...} (Perl syntax) and \g<...> (Oniguruma syntax) are <i>not</i>
|
||
|
|
synonymous. The former is a back reference; the latter is a
|
||
|
|
<a href="#subpatternsassubroutines">subroutine</a>
|
||
|
|
call.
|
||
|
|
<a name="genericchartypes"></a></P>
|
||
|
|
<br><b>
|
||
|
|
Generic character types
|
||
|
|
</b><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Another use of backslash is for specifying generic character types:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
\d any decimal digit
|
||
|
|
\D any character that is not a decimal digit
|
||
|
|
\h any horizontal white space character
|
||
|
|
\H any character that is not a horizontal white space character
|
||
|
|
\s any white space character
|
||
|
|
\S any character that is not a white space character
|
||
|
|
\v any vertical white space character
|
||
|
|
\V any character that is not a vertical white space character
|
||
|
|
\w any "word" character
|
||
|
|
\W any "non-word" character
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
There is also the single sequence \N, which matches a non-newline character.
|
||
|
|
This is the same as
|
||
|
|
<a href="#fullstopdot">the "." metacharacter</a>
|
||
|
|
when PCRE_DOTALL is not set. Perl also uses \N to match characters by name;
|
||
|
|
PCRE does not support this.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Each pair of lower and upper case escape sequences partitions the complete set
|
||
|
|
of characters into two disjoint sets. Any given character matches one, and only
|
||
|
|
one, of each pair. The sequences can appear both inside and outside character
|
||
|
|
classes. They each match one character of the appropriate type. If the current
|
||
|
|
matching point is at the end of the subject string, all of them fail, because
|
||
|
|
there is no character to match.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
For compatibility with Perl, \s does not match the VT character (code 11).
|
||
|
|
This makes it different from the the POSIX "space" class. The \s characters
|
||
|
|
are HT (9), LF (10), FF (12), CR (13), and space (32). If "use locale;" is
|
||
|
|
included in a Perl script, \s may match the VT character. In PCRE, it never
|
||
|
|
does.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
A "word" character is an underscore or any character that is a letter or digit.
|
||
|
|
By default, the definition of letters and digits is controlled by PCRE's
|
||
|
|
low-valued character tables, and may vary if locale-specific matching is taking
|
||
|
|
place (see
|
||
|
|
<a href="pcreapi.html#localesupport">"Locale support"</a>
|
||
|
|
in the
|
||
|
|
<a href="pcreapi.html"><b>pcreapi</b></a>
|
||
|
|
page). For example, in a French locale such as "fr_FR" in Unix-like systems,
|
||
|
|
or "french" in Windows, some character codes greater than 128 are used for
|
||
|
|
accented letters, and these are then matched by \w. The use of locales with
|
||
|
|
Unicode is discouraged.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
By default, in a UTF mode, characters with values greater than 128 never match
|
||
|
|
\d, \s, or \w, and always match \D, \S, and \W. These sequences retain
|
||
|
|
their original meanings from before UTF support was available, mainly for
|
||
|
|
efficiency reasons. However, if PCRE is compiled with Unicode property support,
|
||
|
|
and the PCRE_UCP option is set, the behaviour is changed so that Unicode
|
||
|
|
properties are used to determine character types, as follows:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
\d any character that \p{Nd} matches (decimal digit)
|
||
|
|
\s any character that \p{Z} matches, plus HT, LF, FF, CR
|
||
|
|
\w any character that \p{L} or \p{N} matches, plus underscore
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
The upper case escapes match the inverse sets of characters. Note that \d
|
||
|
|
matches only decimal digits, whereas \w matches any Unicode digit, as well as
|
||
|
|
any Unicode letter, and underscore. Note also that PCRE_UCP affects \b, and
|
||
|
|
\B because they are defined in terms of \w and \W. Matching these sequences
|
||
|
|
is noticeably slower when PCRE_UCP is set.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
The sequences \h, \H, \v, and \V are features that were added to Perl at
|
||
|
|
release 5.10. In contrast to the other sequences, which match only ASCII
|
||
|
|
characters by default, these always match certain high-valued codepoints,
|
||
|
|
whether or not PCRE_UCP is set. The horizontal space characters are:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
U+0009 Horizontal tab (HT)
|
||
|
|
U+0020 Space
|
||
|
|
U+00A0 Non-break space
|
||
|
|
U+1680 Ogham space mark
|
||
|
|
U+180E Mongolian vowel separator
|
||
|
|
U+2000 En quad
|
||
|
|
U+2001 Em quad
|
||
|
|
U+2002 En space
|
||
|
|
U+2003 Em space
|
||
|
|
U+2004 Three-per-em space
|
||
|
|
U+2005 Four-per-em space
|
||
|
|
U+2006 Six-per-em space
|
||
|
|
U+2007 Figure space
|
||
|
|
U+2008 Punctuation space
|
||
|
|
U+2009 Thin space
|
||
|
|
U+200A Hair space
|
||
|
|
U+202F Narrow no-break space
|
||
|
|
U+205F Medium mathematical space
|
||
|
|
U+3000 Ideographic space
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
The vertical space characters are:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
U+000A Linefeed (LF)
|
||
|
|
U+000B Vertical tab (VT)
|
||
|
|
U+000C Form feed (FF)
|
||
|
|
U+000D Carriage return (CR)
|
||
|
|
U+0085 Next line (NEL)
|
||
|
|
U+2028 Line separator
|
||
|
|
U+2029 Paragraph separator
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
In 8-bit, non-UTF-8 mode, only the characters with codepoints less than 256 are
|
||
|
|
relevant.
|
||
|
|
<a name="newlineseq"></a></P>
|
||
|
|
<br><b>
|
||
|
|
Newline sequences
|
||
|
|
</b><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Outside a character class, by default, the escape sequence \R matches any
|
||
|
|
Unicode newline sequence. In 8-bit non-UTF-8 mode \R is equivalent to the
|
||
|
|
following:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(?>\r\n|\n|\x0b|\f|\r|\x85)
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
This is an example of an "atomic group", details of which are given
|
||
|
|
<a href="#atomicgroup">below.</a>
|
||
|
|
This particular group matches either the two-character sequence CR followed by
|
||
|
|
LF, or one of the single characters LF (linefeed, U+000A), VT (vertical tab,
|
||
|
|
U+000B), FF (form feed, U+000C), CR (carriage return, U+000D), or NEL (next
|
||
|
|
line, U+0085). The two-character sequence is treated as a single unit that
|
||
|
|
cannot be split.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
In other modes, two additional characters whose codepoints are greater than 255
|
||
|
|
are added: LS (line separator, U+2028) and PS (paragraph separator, U+2029).
|
||
|
|
Unicode character property support is not needed for these characters to be
|
||
|
|
recognized.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
It is possible to restrict \R to match only CR, LF, or CRLF (instead of the
|
||
|
|
complete set of Unicode line endings) by setting the option PCRE_BSR_ANYCRLF
|
||
|
|
either at compile time or when the pattern is matched. (BSR is an abbrevation
|
||
|
|
for "backslash R".) This can be made the default when PCRE is built; if this is
|
||
|
|
the case, the other behaviour can be requested via the PCRE_BSR_UNICODE option.
|
||
|
|
It is also possible to specify these settings by starting a pattern string with
|
||
|
|
one of the following sequences:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(*BSR_ANYCRLF) CR, LF, or CRLF only
|
||
|
|
(*BSR_UNICODE) any Unicode newline sequence
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
These override the default and the options given to the compiling function, but
|
||
|
|
they can themselves be overridden by options given to a matching function. Note
|
||
|
|
that these special settings, which are not Perl-compatible, are recognized only
|
||
|
|
at the very start of a pattern, and that they must be in upper case. If more
|
||
|
|
than one of them is present, the last one is used. They can be combined with a
|
||
|
|
change of newline convention; for example, a pattern can start with:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(*ANY)(*BSR_ANYCRLF)
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
They can also be combined with the (*UTF8), (*UTF16), (*UTF32), (*UTF) or
|
||
|
|
(*UCP) special sequences. Inside a character class, \R is treated as an
|
||
|
|
unrecognized escape sequence, and so matches the letter "R" by default, but
|
||
|
|
causes an error if PCRE_EXTRA is set.
|
||
|
|
<a name="uniextseq"></a></P>
|
||
|
|
<br><b>
|
||
|
|
Unicode character properties
|
||
|
|
</b><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
When PCRE is built with Unicode character property support, three additional
|
||
|
|
escape sequences that match characters with specific properties are available.
|
||
|
|
When in 8-bit non-UTF-8 mode, these sequences are of course limited to testing
|
||
|
|
characters whose codepoints are less than 256, but they do work in this mode.
|
||
|
|
The extra escape sequences are:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
\p{<i>xx</i>} a character with the <i>xx</i> property
|
||
|
|
\P{<i>xx</i>} a character without the <i>xx</i> property
|
||
|
|
\X a Unicode extended grapheme cluster
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
The property names represented by <i>xx</i> above are limited to the Unicode
|
||
|
|
script names, the general category properties, "Any", which matches any
|
||
|
|
character (including newline), and some special PCRE properties (described
|
||
|
|
in the
|
||
|
|
<a href="#extraprops">next section).</a>
|
||
|
|
Other Perl properties such as "InMusicalSymbols" are not currently supported by
|
||
|
|
PCRE. Note that \P{Any} does not match any characters, so always causes a
|
||
|
|
match failure.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Sets of Unicode characters are defined as belonging to certain scripts. A
|
||
|
|
character from one of these sets can be matched using a script name. For
|
||
|
|
example:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
\p{Greek}
|
||
|
|
\P{Han}
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
Those that are not part of an identified script are lumped together as
|
||
|
|
"Common". The current list of scripts is:
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Arabic,
|
||
|
|
Armenian,
|
||
|
|
Avestan,
|
||
|
|
Balinese,
|
||
|
|
Bamum,
|
||
|
|
Batak,
|
||
|
|
Bengali,
|
||
|
|
Bopomofo,
|
||
|
|
Brahmi,
|
||
|
|
Braille,
|
||
|
|
Buginese,
|
||
|
|
Buhid,
|
||
|
|
Canadian_Aboriginal,
|
||
|
|
Carian,
|
||
|
|
Chakma,
|
||
|
|
Cham,
|
||
|
|
Cherokee,
|
||
|
|
Common,
|
||
|
|
Coptic,
|
||
|
|
Cuneiform,
|
||
|
|
Cypriot,
|
||
|
|
Cyrillic,
|
||
|
|
Deseret,
|
||
|
|
Devanagari,
|
||
|
|
Egyptian_Hieroglyphs,
|
||
|
|
Ethiopic,
|
||
|
|
Georgian,
|
||
|
|
Glagolitic,
|
||
|
|
Gothic,
|
||
|
|
Greek,
|
||
|
|
Gujarati,
|
||
|
|
Gurmukhi,
|
||
|
|
Han,
|
||
|
|
Hangul,
|
||
|
|
Hanunoo,
|
||
|
|
Hebrew,
|
||
|
|
Hiragana,
|
||
|
|
Imperial_Aramaic,
|
||
|
|
Inherited,
|
||
|
|
Inscriptional_Pahlavi,
|
||
|
|
Inscriptional_Parthian,
|
||
|
|
Javanese,
|
||
|
|
Kaithi,
|
||
|
|
Kannada,
|
||
|
|
Katakana,
|
||
|
|
Kayah_Li,
|
||
|
|
Kharoshthi,
|
||
|
|
Khmer,
|
||
|
|
Lao,
|
||
|
|
Latin,
|
||
|
|
Lepcha,
|
||
|
|
Limbu,
|
||
|
|
Linear_B,
|
||
|
|
Lisu,
|
||
|
|
Lycian,
|
||
|
|
Lydian,
|
||
|
|
Malayalam,
|
||
|
|
Mandaic,
|
||
|
|
Meetei_Mayek,
|
||
|
|
Meroitic_Cursive,
|
||
|
|
Meroitic_Hieroglyphs,
|
||
|
|
Miao,
|
||
|
|
Mongolian,
|
||
|
|
Myanmar,
|
||
|
|
New_Tai_Lue,
|
||
|
|
Nko,
|
||
|
|
Ogham,
|
||
|
|
Old_Italic,
|
||
|
|
Old_Persian,
|
||
|
|
Old_South_Arabian,
|
||
|
|
Old_Turkic,
|
||
|
|
Ol_Chiki,
|
||
|
|
Oriya,
|
||
|
|
Osmanya,
|
||
|
|
Phags_Pa,
|
||
|
|
Phoenician,
|
||
|
|
Rejang,
|
||
|
|
Runic,
|
||
|
|
Samaritan,
|
||
|
|
Saurashtra,
|
||
|
|
Sharada,
|
||
|
|
Shavian,
|
||
|
|
Sinhala,
|
||
|
|
Sora_Sompeng,
|
||
|
|
Sundanese,
|
||
|
|
Syloti_Nagri,
|
||
|
|
Syriac,
|
||
|
|
Tagalog,
|
||
|
|
Tagbanwa,
|
||
|
|
Tai_Le,
|
||
|
|
Tai_Tham,
|
||
|
|
Tai_Viet,
|
||
|
|
Takri,
|
||
|
|
Tamil,
|
||
|
|
Telugu,
|
||
|
|
Thaana,
|
||
|
|
Thai,
|
||
|
|
Tibetan,
|
||
|
|
Tifinagh,
|
||
|
|
Ugaritic,
|
||
|
|
Vai,
|
||
|
|
Yi.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Each character has exactly one Unicode general category property, specified by
|
||
|
|
a two-letter abbreviation. For compatibility with Perl, negation can be
|
||
|
|
specified by including a circumflex between the opening brace and the property
|
||
|
|
name. For example, \p{^Lu} is the same as \P{Lu}.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
If only one letter is specified with \p or \P, it includes all the general
|
||
|
|
category properties that start with that letter. In this case, in the absence
|
||
|
|
of negation, the curly brackets in the escape sequence are optional; these two
|
||
|
|
examples have the same effect:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
\p{L}
|
||
|
|
\pL
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
The following general category property codes are supported:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
C Other
|
||
|
|
Cc Control
|
||
|
|
Cf Format
|
||
|
|
Cn Unassigned
|
||
|
|
Co Private use
|
||
|
|
Cs Surrogate
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
L Letter
|
||
|
|
Ll Lower case letter
|
||
|
|
Lm Modifier letter
|
||
|
|
Lo Other letter
|
||
|
|
Lt Title case letter
|
||
|
|
Lu Upper case letter
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
M Mark
|
||
|
|
Mc Spacing mark
|
||
|
|
Me Enclosing mark
|
||
|
|
Mn Non-spacing mark
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
N Number
|
||
|
|
Nd Decimal number
|
||
|
|
Nl Letter number
|
||
|
|
No Other number
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
P Punctuation
|
||
|
|
Pc Connector punctuation
|
||
|
|
Pd Dash punctuation
|
||
|
|
Pe Close punctuation
|
||
|
|
Pf Final punctuation
|
||
|
|
Pi Initial punctuation
|
||
|
|
Po Other punctuation
|
||
|
|
Ps Open punctuation
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
S Symbol
|
||
|
|
Sc Currency symbol
|
||
|
|
Sk Modifier symbol
|
||
|
|
Sm Mathematical symbol
|
||
|
|
So Other symbol
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
Z Separator
|
||
|
|
Zl Line separator
|
||
|
|
Zp Paragraph separator
|
||
|
|
Zs Space separator
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
The special property L& is also supported: it matches a character that has
|
||
|
|
the Lu, Ll, or Lt property, in other words, a letter that is not classified as
|
||
|
|
a modifier or "other".
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
The Cs (Surrogate) property applies only to characters in the range U+D800 to
|
||
|
|
U+DFFF. Such characters are not valid in Unicode strings and so
|
||
|
|
cannot be tested by PCRE, unless UTF validity checking has been turned off
|
||
|
|
(see the discussion of PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK, PCRE_NO_UTF16_CHECK and
|
||
|
|
PCRE_NO_UTF32_CHECK in the
|
||
|
|
<a href="pcreapi.html"><b>pcreapi</b></a>
|
||
|
|
page). Perl does not support the Cs property.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
The long synonyms for property names that Perl supports (such as \p{Letter})
|
||
|
|
are not supported by PCRE, nor is it permitted to prefix any of these
|
||
|
|
properties with "Is".
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
No character that is in the Unicode table has the Cn (unassigned) property.
|
||
|
|
Instead, this property is assumed for any code point that is not in the
|
||
|
|
Unicode table.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Specifying caseless matching does not affect these escape sequences. For
|
||
|
|
example, \p{Lu} always matches only upper case letters.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Matching characters by Unicode property is not fast, because PCRE has to do a
|
||
|
|
multistage table lookup in order to find a character's property. That is why
|
||
|
|
the traditional escape sequences such as \d and \w do not use Unicode
|
||
|
|
properties in PCRE by default, though you can make them do so by setting the
|
||
|
|
PCRE_UCP option or by starting the pattern with (*UCP).
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<br><b>
|
||
|
|
Extended grapheme clusters
|
||
|
|
</b><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
The \X escape matches any number of Unicode characters that form an "extended
|
||
|
|
grapheme cluster", and treats the sequence as an atomic group
|
||
|
|
<a href="#atomicgroup">(see below).</a>
|
||
|
|
Up to and including release 8.31, PCRE matched an earlier, simpler definition
|
||
|
|
that was equivalent to
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(?>\PM\pM*)
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
That is, it matched a character without the "mark" property, followed by zero
|
||
|
|
or more characters with the "mark" property. Characters with the "mark"
|
||
|
|
property are typically non-spacing accents that affect the preceding character.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
This simple definition was extended in Unicode to include more complicated
|
||
|
|
kinds of composite character by giving each character a grapheme breaking
|
||
|
|
property, and creating rules that use these properties to define the boundaries
|
||
|
|
of extended grapheme clusters. In releases of PCRE later than 8.31, \X matches
|
||
|
|
one of these clusters.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
\X always matches at least one character. Then it decides whether to add
|
||
|
|
additional characters according to the following rules for ending a cluster:
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
1. End at the end of the subject string.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
2. Do not end between CR and LF; otherwise end after any control character.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
3. Do not break Hangul (a Korean script) syllable sequences. Hangul characters
|
||
|
|
are of five types: L, V, T, LV, and LVT. An L character may be followed by an
|
||
|
|
L, V, LV, or LVT character; an LV or V character may be followed by a V or T
|
||
|
|
character; an LVT or T character may be follwed only by a T character.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
4. Do not end before extending characters or spacing marks. Characters with
|
||
|
|
the "mark" property always have the "extend" grapheme breaking property.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
5. Do not end after prepend characters.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
6. Otherwise, end the cluster.
|
||
|
|
<a name="extraprops"></a></P>
|
||
|
|
<br><b>
|
||
|
|
PCRE's additional properties
|
||
|
|
</b><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
As well as the standard Unicode properties described above, PCRE supports four
|
||
|
|
more that make it possible to convert traditional escape sequences such as \w
|
||
|
|
and \s and POSIX character classes to use Unicode properties. PCRE uses these
|
||
|
|
non-standard, non-Perl properties internally when PCRE_UCP is set. They are:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
Xan Any alphanumeric character
|
||
|
|
Xps Any POSIX space character
|
||
|
|
Xsp Any Perl space character
|
||
|
|
Xwd Any Perl "word" character
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
Xan matches characters that have either the L (letter) or the N (number)
|
||
|
|
property. Xps matches the characters tab, linefeed, vertical tab, form feed, or
|
||
|
|
carriage return, and any other character that has the Z (separator) property.
|
||
|
|
Xsp is the same as Xps, except that vertical tab is excluded. Xwd matches the
|
||
|
|
same characters as Xan, plus underscore.
|
||
|
|
<a name="resetmatchstart"></a></P>
|
||
|
|
<br><b>
|
||
|
|
Resetting the match start
|
||
|
|
</b><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
The escape sequence \K causes any previously matched characters not to be
|
||
|
|
included in the final matched sequence. For example, the pattern:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
foo\Kbar
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
matches "foobar", but reports that it has matched "bar". This feature is
|
||
|
|
similar to a lookbehind assertion
|
||
|
|
<a href="#lookbehind">(described below).</a>
|
||
|
|
However, in this case, the part of the subject before the real match does not
|
||
|
|
have to be of fixed length, as lookbehind assertions do. The use of \K does
|
||
|
|
not interfere with the setting of
|
||
|
|
<a href="#subpattern">captured substrings.</a>
|
||
|
|
For example, when the pattern
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(foo)\Kbar
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
matches "foobar", the first substring is still set to "foo".
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Perl documents that the use of \K within assertions is "not well defined". In
|
||
|
|
PCRE, \K is acted upon when it occurs inside positive assertions, but is
|
||
|
|
ignored in negative assertions.
|
||
|
|
<a name="smallassertions"></a></P>
|
||
|
|
<br><b>
|
||
|
|
Simple assertions
|
||
|
|
</b><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
The final use of backslash is for certain simple assertions. An assertion
|
||
|
|
specifies a condition that has to be met at a particular point in a match,
|
||
|
|
without consuming any characters from the subject string. The use of
|
||
|
|
subpatterns for more complicated assertions is described
|
||
|
|
<a href="#bigassertions">below.</a>
|
||
|
|
The backslashed assertions are:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
\b matches at a word boundary
|
||
|
|
\B matches when not at a word boundary
|
||
|
|
\A matches at the start of the subject
|
||
|
|
\Z matches at the end of the subject
|
||
|
|
also matches before a newline at the end of the subject
|
||
|
|
\z matches only at the end of the subject
|
||
|
|
\G matches at the first matching position in the subject
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
Inside a character class, \b has a different meaning; it matches the backspace
|
||
|
|
character. If any other of these assertions appears in a character class, by
|
||
|
|
default it matches the corresponding literal character (for example, \B
|
||
|
|
matches the letter B). However, if the PCRE_EXTRA option is set, an "invalid
|
||
|
|
escape sequence" error is generated instead.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
A word boundary is a position in the subject string where the current character
|
||
|
|
and the previous character do not both match \w or \W (i.e. one matches
|
||
|
|
\w and the other matches \W), or the start or end of the string if the
|
||
|
|
first or last character matches \w, respectively. In a UTF mode, the meanings
|
||
|
|
of \w and \W can be changed by setting the PCRE_UCP option. When this is
|
||
|
|
done, it also affects \b and \B. Neither PCRE nor Perl has a separate "start
|
||
|
|
of word" or "end of word" metasequence. However, whatever follows \b normally
|
||
|
|
determines which it is. For example, the fragment \ba matches "a" at the start
|
||
|
|
of a word.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
The \A, \Z, and \z assertions differ from the traditional circumflex and
|
||
|
|
dollar (described in the next section) in that they only ever match at the very
|
||
|
|
start and end of the subject string, whatever options are set. Thus, they are
|
||
|
|
independent of multiline mode. These three assertions are not affected by the
|
||
|
|
PCRE_NOTBOL or PCRE_NOTEOL options, which affect only the behaviour of the
|
||
|
|
circumflex and dollar metacharacters. However, if the <i>startoffset</i>
|
||
|
|
argument of <b>pcre_exec()</b> is non-zero, indicating that matching is to start
|
||
|
|
at a point other than the beginning of the subject, \A can never match. The
|
||
|
|
difference between \Z and \z is that \Z matches before a newline at the end
|
||
|
|
of the string as well as at the very end, whereas \z matches only at the end.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
The \G assertion is true only when the current matching position is at the
|
||
|
|
start point of the match, as specified by the <i>startoffset</i> argument of
|
||
|
|
<b>pcre_exec()</b>. It differs from \A when the value of <i>startoffset</i> is
|
||
|
|
non-zero. By calling <b>pcre_exec()</b> multiple times with appropriate
|
||
|
|
arguments, you can mimic Perl's /g option, and it is in this kind of
|
||
|
|
implementation where \G can be useful.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Note, however, that PCRE's interpretation of \G, as the start of the current
|
||
|
|
match, is subtly different from Perl's, which defines it as the end of the
|
||
|
|
previous match. In Perl, these can be different when the previously matched
|
||
|
|
string was empty. Because PCRE does just one match at a time, it cannot
|
||
|
|
reproduce this behaviour.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
If all the alternatives of a pattern begin with \G, the expression is anchored
|
||
|
|
to the starting match position, and the "anchored" flag is set in the compiled
|
||
|
|
regular expression.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<br><a name="SEC6" href="#TOC1">CIRCUMFLEX AND DOLLAR</a><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
The circumflex and dollar metacharacters are zero-width assertions. That is,
|
||
|
|
they test for a particular condition being true without consuming any
|
||
|
|
characters from the subject string.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Outside a character class, in the default matching mode, the circumflex
|
||
|
|
character is an assertion that is true only if the current matching point is at
|
||
|
|
the start of the subject string. If the <i>startoffset</i> argument of
|
||
|
|
<b>pcre_exec()</b> is non-zero, circumflex can never match if the PCRE_MULTILINE
|
||
|
|
option is unset. Inside a character class, circumflex has an entirely different
|
||
|
|
meaning
|
||
|
|
<a href="#characterclass">(see below).</a>
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Circumflex need not be the first character of the pattern if a number of
|
||
|
|
alternatives are involved, but it should be the first thing in each alternative
|
||
|
|
in which it appears if the pattern is ever to match that branch. If all
|
||
|
|
possible alternatives start with a circumflex, that is, if the pattern is
|
||
|
|
constrained to match only at the start of the subject, it is said to be an
|
||
|
|
"anchored" pattern. (There are also other constructs that can cause a pattern
|
||
|
|
to be anchored.)
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
The dollar character is an assertion that is true only if the current matching
|
||
|
|
point is at the end of the subject string, or immediately before a newline at
|
||
|
|
the end of the string (by default). Note, however, that it does not actually
|
||
|
|
match the newline. Dollar need not be the last character of the pattern if a
|
||
|
|
number of alternatives are involved, but it should be the last item in any
|
||
|
|
branch in which it appears. Dollar has no special meaning in a character class.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
The meaning of dollar can be changed so that it matches only at the very end of
|
||
|
|
the string, by setting the PCRE_DOLLAR_ENDONLY option at compile time. This
|
||
|
|
does not affect the \Z assertion.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
The meanings of the circumflex and dollar characters are changed if the
|
||
|
|
PCRE_MULTILINE option is set. When this is the case, a circumflex matches
|
||
|
|
immediately after internal newlines as well as at the start of the subject
|
||
|
|
string. It does not match after a newline that ends the string. A dollar
|
||
|
|
matches before any newlines in the string, as well as at the very end, when
|
||
|
|
PCRE_MULTILINE is set. When newline is specified as the two-character
|
||
|
|
sequence CRLF, isolated CR and LF characters do not indicate newlines.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
For example, the pattern /^abc$/ matches the subject string "def\nabc" (where
|
||
|
|
\n represents a newline) in multiline mode, but not otherwise. Consequently,
|
||
|
|
patterns that are anchored in single line mode because all branches start with
|
||
|
|
^ are not anchored in multiline mode, and a match for circumflex is possible
|
||
|
|
when the <i>startoffset</i> argument of <b>pcre_exec()</b> is non-zero. The
|
||
|
|
PCRE_DOLLAR_ENDONLY option is ignored if PCRE_MULTILINE is set.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Note that the sequences \A, \Z, and \z can be used to match the start and
|
||
|
|
end of the subject in both modes, and if all branches of a pattern start with
|
||
|
|
\A it is always anchored, whether or not PCRE_MULTILINE is set.
|
||
|
|
<a name="fullstopdot"></a></P>
|
||
|
|
<br><a name="SEC7" href="#TOC1">FULL STOP (PERIOD, DOT) AND \N</a><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Outside a character class, a dot in the pattern matches any one character in
|
||
|
|
the subject string except (by default) a character that signifies the end of a
|
||
|
|
line.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
When a line ending is defined as a single character, dot never matches that
|
||
|
|
character; when the two-character sequence CRLF is used, dot does not match CR
|
||
|
|
if it is immediately followed by LF, but otherwise it matches all characters
|
||
|
|
(including isolated CRs and LFs). When any Unicode line endings are being
|
||
|
|
recognized, dot does not match CR or LF or any of the other line ending
|
||
|
|
characters.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
The behaviour of dot with regard to newlines can be changed. If the PCRE_DOTALL
|
||
|
|
option is set, a dot matches any one character, without exception. If the
|
||
|
|
two-character sequence CRLF is present in the subject string, it takes two dots
|
||
|
|
to match it.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
The handling of dot is entirely independent of the handling of circumflex and
|
||
|
|
dollar, the only relationship being that they both involve newlines. Dot has no
|
||
|
|
special meaning in a character class.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
The escape sequence \N behaves like a dot, except that it is not affected by
|
||
|
|
the PCRE_DOTALL option. In other words, it matches any character except one
|
||
|
|
that signifies the end of a line. Perl also uses \N to match characters by
|
||
|
|
name; PCRE does not support this.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<br><a name="SEC8" href="#TOC1">MATCHING A SINGLE DATA UNIT</a><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Outside a character class, the escape sequence \C matches any one data unit,
|
||
|
|
whether or not a UTF mode is set. In the 8-bit library, one data unit is one
|
||
|
|
byte; in the 16-bit library it is a 16-bit unit; in the 32-bit library it is
|
||
|
|
a 32-bit unit. Unlike a dot, \C always
|
||
|
|
matches line-ending characters. The feature is provided in Perl in order to
|
||
|
|
match individual bytes in UTF-8 mode, but it is unclear how it can usefully be
|
||
|
|
used. Because \C breaks up characters into individual data units, matching one
|
||
|
|
unit with \C in a UTF mode means that the rest of the string may start with a
|
||
|
|
malformed UTF character. This has undefined results, because PCRE assumes that
|
||
|
|
it is dealing with valid UTF strings (and by default it checks this at the
|
||
|
|
start of processing unless the PCRE_NO_UTF8_CHECK, PCRE_NO_UTF16_CHECK or
|
||
|
|
PCRE_NO_UTF32_CHECK option is used).
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
PCRE does not allow \C to appear in lookbehind assertions
|
||
|
|
<a href="#lookbehind">(described below)</a>
|
||
|
|
in a UTF mode, because this would make it impossible to calculate the length of
|
||
|
|
the lookbehind.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
In general, the \C escape sequence is best avoided. However, one
|
||
|
|
way of using it that avoids the problem of malformed UTF characters is to use a
|
||
|
|
lookahead to check the length of the next character, as in this pattern, which
|
||
|
|
could be used with a UTF-8 string (ignore white space and line breaks):
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(?| (?=[\x00-\x7f])(\C) |
|
||
|
|
(?=[\x80-\x{7ff}])(\C)(\C) |
|
||
|
|
(?=[\x{800}-\x{ffff}])(\C)(\C)(\C) |
|
||
|
|
(?=[\x{10000}-\x{1fffff}])(\C)(\C)(\C)(\C))
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
A group that starts with (?| resets the capturing parentheses numbers in each
|
||
|
|
alternative (see
|
||
|
|
<a href="#dupsubpatternnumber">"Duplicate Subpattern Numbers"</a>
|
||
|
|
below). The assertions at the start of each branch check the next UTF-8
|
||
|
|
character for values whose encoding uses 1, 2, 3, or 4 bytes, respectively. The
|
||
|
|
character's individual bytes are then captured by the appropriate number of
|
||
|
|
groups.
|
||
|
|
<a name="characterclass"></a></P>
|
||
|
|
<br><a name="SEC9" href="#TOC1">SQUARE BRACKETS AND CHARACTER CLASSES</a><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
An opening square bracket introduces a character class, terminated by a closing
|
||
|
|
square bracket. A closing square bracket on its own is not special by default.
|
||
|
|
However, if the PCRE_JAVASCRIPT_COMPAT option is set, a lone closing square
|
||
|
|
bracket causes a compile-time error. If a closing square bracket is required as
|
||
|
|
a member of the class, it should be the first data character in the class
|
||
|
|
(after an initial circumflex, if present) or escaped with a backslash.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
A character class matches a single character in the subject. In a UTF mode, the
|
||
|
|
character may be more than one data unit long. A matched character must be in
|
||
|
|
the set of characters defined by the class, unless the first character in the
|
||
|
|
class definition is a circumflex, in which case the subject character must not
|
||
|
|
be in the set defined by the class. If a circumflex is actually required as a
|
||
|
|
member of the class, ensure it is not the first character, or escape it with a
|
||
|
|
backslash.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
For example, the character class [aeiou] matches any lower case vowel, while
|
||
|
|
[^aeiou] matches any character that is not a lower case vowel. Note that a
|
||
|
|
circumflex is just a convenient notation for specifying the characters that
|
||
|
|
are in the class by enumerating those that are not. A class that starts with a
|
||
|
|
circumflex is not an assertion; it still consumes a character from the subject
|
||
|
|
string, and therefore it fails if the current pointer is at the end of the
|
||
|
|
string.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
In UTF-8 (UTF-16, UTF-32) mode, characters with values greater than 255 (0xffff)
|
||
|
|
can be included in a class as a literal string of data units, or by using the
|
||
|
|
\x{ escaping mechanism.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
When caseless matching is set, any letters in a class represent both their
|
||
|
|
upper case and lower case versions, so for example, a caseless [aeiou] matches
|
||
|
|
"A" as well as "a", and a caseless [^aeiou] does not match "A", whereas a
|
||
|
|
caseful version would. In a UTF mode, PCRE always understands the concept of
|
||
|
|
case for characters whose values are less than 128, so caseless matching is
|
||
|
|
always possible. For characters with higher values, the concept of case is
|
||
|
|
supported if PCRE is compiled with Unicode property support, but not otherwise.
|
||
|
|
If you want to use caseless matching in a UTF mode for characters 128 and
|
||
|
|
above, you must ensure that PCRE is compiled with Unicode property support as
|
||
|
|
well as with UTF support.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Characters that might indicate line breaks are never treated in any special way
|
||
|
|
when matching character classes, whatever line-ending sequence is in use, and
|
||
|
|
whatever setting of the PCRE_DOTALL and PCRE_MULTILINE options is used. A class
|
||
|
|
such as [^a] always matches one of these characters.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
The minus (hyphen) character can be used to specify a range of characters in a
|
||
|
|
character class. For example, [d-m] matches any letter between d and m,
|
||
|
|
inclusive. If a minus character is required in a class, it must be escaped with
|
||
|
|
a backslash or appear in a position where it cannot be interpreted as
|
||
|
|
indicating a range, typically as the first or last character in the class.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
It is not possible to have the literal character "]" as the end character of a
|
||
|
|
range. A pattern such as [W-]46] is interpreted as a class of two characters
|
||
|
|
("W" and "-") followed by a literal string "46]", so it would match "W46]" or
|
||
|
|
"-46]". However, if the "]" is escaped with a backslash it is interpreted as
|
||
|
|
the end of range, so [W-\]46] is interpreted as a class containing a range
|
||
|
|
followed by two other characters. The octal or hexadecimal representation of
|
||
|
|
"]" can also be used to end a range.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Ranges operate in the collating sequence of character values. They can also be
|
||
|
|
used for characters specified numerically, for example [\000-\037]. Ranges
|
||
|
|
can include any characters that are valid for the current mode.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
If a range that includes letters is used when caseless matching is set, it
|
||
|
|
matches the letters in either case. For example, [W-c] is equivalent to
|
||
|
|
[][\\^_`wxyzabc], matched caselessly, and in a non-UTF mode, if character
|
||
|
|
tables for a French locale are in use, [\xc8-\xcb] matches accented E
|
||
|
|
characters in both cases. In UTF modes, PCRE supports the concept of case for
|
||
|
|
characters with values greater than 128 only when it is compiled with Unicode
|
||
|
|
property support.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
The character escape sequences \d, \D, \h, \H, \p, \P, \s, \S, \v,
|
||
|
|
\V, \w, and \W may appear in a character class, and add the characters that
|
||
|
|
they match to the class. For example, [\dABCDEF] matches any hexadecimal
|
||
|
|
digit. In UTF modes, the PCRE_UCP option affects the meanings of \d, \s, \w
|
||
|
|
and their upper case partners, just as it does when they appear outside a
|
||
|
|
character class, as described in the section entitled
|
||
|
|
<a href="#genericchartypes">"Generic character types"</a>
|
||
|
|
above. The escape sequence \b has a different meaning inside a character
|
||
|
|
class; it matches the backspace character. The sequences \B, \N, \R, and \X
|
||
|
|
are not special inside a character class. Like any other unrecognized escape
|
||
|
|
sequences, they are treated as the literal characters "B", "N", "R", and "X" by
|
||
|
|
default, but cause an error if the PCRE_EXTRA option is set.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
A circumflex can conveniently be used with the upper case character types to
|
||
|
|
specify a more restricted set of characters than the matching lower case type.
|
||
|
|
For example, the class [^\W_] matches any letter or digit, but not underscore,
|
||
|
|
whereas [\w] includes underscore. A positive character class should be read as
|
||
|
|
"something OR something OR ..." and a negative class as "NOT something AND NOT
|
||
|
|
something AND NOT ...".
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
The only metacharacters that are recognized in character classes are backslash,
|
||
|
|
hyphen (only where it can be interpreted as specifying a range), circumflex
|
||
|
|
(only at the start), opening square bracket (only when it can be interpreted as
|
||
|
|
introducing a POSIX class name - see the next section), and the terminating
|
||
|
|
closing square bracket. However, escaping other non-alphanumeric characters
|
||
|
|
does no harm.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<br><a name="SEC10" href="#TOC1">POSIX CHARACTER CLASSES</a><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Perl supports the POSIX notation for character classes. This uses names
|
||
|
|
enclosed by [: and :] within the enclosing square brackets. PCRE also supports
|
||
|
|
this notation. For example,
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
[01[:alpha:]%]
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
matches "0", "1", any alphabetic character, or "%". The supported class names
|
||
|
|
are:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
alnum letters and digits
|
||
|
|
alpha letters
|
||
|
|
ascii character codes 0 - 127
|
||
|
|
blank space or tab only
|
||
|
|
cntrl control characters
|
||
|
|
digit decimal digits (same as \d)
|
||
|
|
graph printing characters, excluding space
|
||
|
|
lower lower case letters
|
||
|
|
print printing characters, including space
|
||
|
|
punct printing characters, excluding letters and digits and space
|
||
|
|
space white space (not quite the same as \s)
|
||
|
|
upper upper case letters
|
||
|
|
word "word" characters (same as \w)
|
||
|
|
xdigit hexadecimal digits
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
The "space" characters are HT (9), LF (10), VT (11), FF (12), CR (13), and
|
||
|
|
space (32). Notice that this list includes the VT character (code 11). This
|
||
|
|
makes "space" different to \s, which does not include VT (for Perl
|
||
|
|
compatibility).
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
The name "word" is a Perl extension, and "blank" is a GNU extension from Perl
|
||
|
|
5.8. Another Perl extension is negation, which is indicated by a ^ character
|
||
|
|
after the colon. For example,
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
[12[:^digit:]]
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
matches "1", "2", or any non-digit. PCRE (and Perl) also recognize the POSIX
|
||
|
|
syntax [.ch.] and [=ch=] where "ch" is a "collating element", but these are not
|
||
|
|
supported, and an error is given if they are encountered.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
By default, in UTF modes, characters with values greater than 128 do not match
|
||
|
|
any of the POSIX character classes. However, if the PCRE_UCP option is passed
|
||
|
|
to <b>pcre_compile()</b>, some of the classes are changed so that Unicode
|
||
|
|
character properties are used. This is achieved by replacing the POSIX classes
|
||
|
|
by other sequences, as follows:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
[:alnum:] becomes \p{Xan}
|
||
|
|
[:alpha:] becomes \p{L}
|
||
|
|
[:blank:] becomes \h
|
||
|
|
[:digit:] becomes \p{Nd}
|
||
|
|
[:lower:] becomes \p{Ll}
|
||
|
|
[:space:] becomes \p{Xps}
|
||
|
|
[:upper:] becomes \p{Lu}
|
||
|
|
[:word:] becomes \p{Xwd}
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
Negated versions, such as [:^alpha:] use \P instead of \p. The other POSIX
|
||
|
|
classes are unchanged, and match only characters with code points less than
|
||
|
|
128.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<br><a name="SEC11" href="#TOC1">VERTICAL BAR</a><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Vertical bar characters are used to separate alternative patterns. For example,
|
||
|
|
the pattern
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
gilbert|sullivan
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
matches either "gilbert" or "sullivan". Any number of alternatives may appear,
|
||
|
|
and an empty alternative is permitted (matching the empty string). The matching
|
||
|
|
process tries each alternative in turn, from left to right, and the first one
|
||
|
|
that succeeds is used. If the alternatives are within a subpattern
|
||
|
|
<a href="#subpattern">(defined below),</a>
|
||
|
|
"succeeds" means matching the rest of the main pattern as well as the
|
||
|
|
alternative in the subpattern.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<br><a name="SEC12" href="#TOC1">INTERNAL OPTION SETTING</a><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
The settings of the PCRE_CASELESS, PCRE_MULTILINE, PCRE_DOTALL, and
|
||
|
|
PCRE_EXTENDED options (which are Perl-compatible) can be changed from within
|
||
|
|
the pattern by a sequence of Perl option letters enclosed between "(?" and ")".
|
||
|
|
The option letters are
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
i for PCRE_CASELESS
|
||
|
|
m for PCRE_MULTILINE
|
||
|
|
s for PCRE_DOTALL
|
||
|
|
x for PCRE_EXTENDED
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
For example, (?im) sets caseless, multiline matching. It is also possible to
|
||
|
|
unset these options by preceding the letter with a hyphen, and a combined
|
||
|
|
setting and unsetting such as (?im-sx), which sets PCRE_CASELESS and
|
||
|
|
PCRE_MULTILINE while unsetting PCRE_DOTALL and PCRE_EXTENDED, is also
|
||
|
|
permitted. If a letter appears both before and after the hyphen, the option is
|
||
|
|
unset.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
The PCRE-specific options PCRE_DUPNAMES, PCRE_UNGREEDY, and PCRE_EXTRA can be
|
||
|
|
changed in the same way as the Perl-compatible options by using the characters
|
||
|
|
J, U and X respectively.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
When one of these option changes occurs at top level (that is, not inside
|
||
|
|
subpattern parentheses), the change applies to the remainder of the pattern
|
||
|
|
that follows. If the change is placed right at the start of a pattern, PCRE
|
||
|
|
extracts it into the global options (and it will therefore show up in data
|
||
|
|
extracted by the <b>pcre_fullinfo()</b> function).
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
An option change within a subpattern (see below for a description of
|
||
|
|
subpatterns) affects only that part of the subpattern that follows it, so
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(a(?i)b)c
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
matches abc and aBc and no other strings (assuming PCRE_CASELESS is not used).
|
||
|
|
By this means, options can be made to have different settings in different
|
||
|
|
parts of the pattern. Any changes made in one alternative do carry on
|
||
|
|
into subsequent branches within the same subpattern. For example,
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(a(?i)b|c)
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
matches "ab", "aB", "c", and "C", even though when matching "C" the first
|
||
|
|
branch is abandoned before the option setting. This is because the effects of
|
||
|
|
option settings happen at compile time. There would be some very weird
|
||
|
|
behaviour otherwise.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
<b>Note:</b> There are other PCRE-specific options that can be set by the
|
||
|
|
application when the compiling or matching functions are called. In some cases
|
||
|
|
the pattern can contain special leading sequences such as (*CRLF) to override
|
||
|
|
what the application has set or what has been defaulted. Details are given in
|
||
|
|
the section entitled
|
||
|
|
<a href="#newlineseq">"Newline sequences"</a>
|
||
|
|
above. There are also the (*UTF8), (*UTF16),(*UTF32), and (*UCP) leading
|
||
|
|
sequences that can be used to set UTF and Unicode property modes; they are
|
||
|
|
equivalent to setting the PCRE_UTF8, PCRE_UTF16, PCRE_UTF32 and the PCRE_UCP
|
||
|
|
options, respectively. The (*UTF) sequence is a generic version that can be
|
||
|
|
used with any of the libraries.
|
||
|
|
<a name="subpattern"></a></P>
|
||
|
|
<br><a name="SEC13" href="#TOC1">SUBPATTERNS</a><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Subpatterns are delimited by parentheses (round brackets), which can be nested.
|
||
|
|
Turning part of a pattern into a subpattern does two things:
|
||
|
|
<br>
|
||
|
|
<br>
|
||
|
|
1. It localizes a set of alternatives. For example, the pattern
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
cat(aract|erpillar|)
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
matches "cataract", "caterpillar", or "cat". Without the parentheses, it would
|
||
|
|
match "cataract", "erpillar" or an empty string.
|
||
|
|
<br>
|
||
|
|
<br>
|
||
|
|
2. It sets up the subpattern as a capturing subpattern. This means that, when
|
||
|
|
the whole pattern matches, that portion of the subject string that matched the
|
||
|
|
subpattern is passed back to the caller via the <i>ovector</i> argument of the
|
||
|
|
matching function. (This applies only to the traditional matching functions;
|
||
|
|
the DFA matching functions do not support capturing.)
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Opening parentheses are counted from left to right (starting from 1) to obtain
|
||
|
|
numbers for the capturing subpatterns. For example, if the string "the red
|
||
|
|
king" is matched against the pattern
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
the ((red|white) (king|queen))
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
the captured substrings are "red king", "red", and "king", and are numbered 1,
|
||
|
|
2, and 3, respectively.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
The fact that plain parentheses fulfil two functions is not always helpful.
|
||
|
|
There are often times when a grouping subpattern is required without a
|
||
|
|
capturing requirement. If an opening parenthesis is followed by a question mark
|
||
|
|
and a colon, the subpattern does not do any capturing, and is not counted when
|
||
|
|
computing the number of any subsequent capturing subpatterns. For example, if
|
||
|
|
the string "the white queen" is matched against the pattern
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
the ((?:red|white) (king|queen))
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
the captured substrings are "white queen" and "queen", and are numbered 1 and
|
||
|
|
2. The maximum number of capturing subpatterns is 65535.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
As a convenient shorthand, if any option settings are required at the start of
|
||
|
|
a non-capturing subpattern, the option letters may appear between the "?" and
|
||
|
|
the ":". Thus the two patterns
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(?i:saturday|sunday)
|
||
|
|
(?:(?i)saturday|sunday)
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
match exactly the same set of strings. Because alternative branches are tried
|
||
|
|
from left to right, and options are not reset until the end of the subpattern
|
||
|
|
is reached, an option setting in one branch does affect subsequent branches, so
|
||
|
|
the above patterns match "SUNDAY" as well as "Saturday".
|
||
|
|
<a name="dupsubpatternnumber"></a></P>
|
||
|
|
<br><a name="SEC14" href="#TOC1">DUPLICATE SUBPATTERN NUMBERS</a><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Perl 5.10 introduced a feature whereby each alternative in a subpattern uses
|
||
|
|
the same numbers for its capturing parentheses. Such a subpattern starts with
|
||
|
|
(?| and is itself a non-capturing subpattern. For example, consider this
|
||
|
|
pattern:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(?|(Sat)ur|(Sun))day
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
Because the two alternatives are inside a (?| group, both sets of capturing
|
||
|
|
parentheses are numbered one. Thus, when the pattern matches, you can look
|
||
|
|
at captured substring number one, whichever alternative matched. This construct
|
||
|
|
is useful when you want to capture part, but not all, of one of a number of
|
||
|
|
alternatives. Inside a (?| group, parentheses are numbered as usual, but the
|
||
|
|
number is reset at the start of each branch. The numbers of any capturing
|
||
|
|
parentheses that follow the subpattern start after the highest number used in
|
||
|
|
any branch. The following example is taken from the Perl documentation. The
|
||
|
|
numbers underneath show in which buffer the captured content will be stored.
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
# before ---------------branch-reset----------- after
|
||
|
|
/ ( a ) (?| x ( y ) z | (p (q) r) | (t) u (v) ) ( z ) /x
|
||
|
|
# 1 2 2 3 2 3 4
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
A back reference to a numbered subpattern uses the most recent value that is
|
||
|
|
set for that number by any subpattern. The following pattern matches "abcabc"
|
||
|
|
or "defdef":
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
/(?|(abc)|(def))\1/
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
In contrast, a subroutine call to a numbered subpattern always refers to the
|
||
|
|
first one in the pattern with the given number. The following pattern matches
|
||
|
|
"abcabc" or "defabc":
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
/(?|(abc)|(def))(?1)/
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
If a
|
||
|
|
<a href="#conditions">condition test</a>
|
||
|
|
for a subpattern's having matched refers to a non-unique number, the test is
|
||
|
|
true if any of the subpatterns of that number have matched.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
An alternative approach to using this "branch reset" feature is to use
|
||
|
|
duplicate named subpatterns, as described in the next section.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<br><a name="SEC15" href="#TOC1">NAMED SUBPATTERNS</a><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Identifying capturing parentheses by number is simple, but it can be very hard
|
||
|
|
to keep track of the numbers in complicated regular expressions. Furthermore,
|
||
|
|
if an expression is modified, the numbers may change. To help with this
|
||
|
|
difficulty, PCRE supports the naming of subpatterns. This feature was not
|
||
|
|
added to Perl until release 5.10. Python had the feature earlier, and PCRE
|
||
|
|
introduced it at release 4.0, using the Python syntax. PCRE now supports both
|
||
|
|
the Perl and the Python syntax. Perl allows identically numbered subpatterns to
|
||
|
|
have different names, but PCRE does not.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
In PCRE, a subpattern can be named in one of three ways: (?<name>...) or
|
||
|
|
(?'name'...) as in Perl, or (?P<name>...) as in Python. References to capturing
|
||
|
|
parentheses from other parts of the pattern, such as
|
||
|
|
<a href="#backreferences">back references,</a>
|
||
|
|
<a href="#recursion">recursion,</a>
|
||
|
|
and
|
||
|
|
<a href="#conditions">conditions,</a>
|
||
|
|
can be made by name as well as by number.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Names consist of up to 32 alphanumeric characters and underscores. Named
|
||
|
|
capturing parentheses are still allocated numbers as well as names, exactly as
|
||
|
|
if the names were not present. The PCRE API provides function calls for
|
||
|
|
extracting the name-to-number translation table from a compiled pattern. There
|
||
|
|
is also a convenience function for extracting a captured substring by name.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
By default, a name must be unique within a pattern, but it is possible to relax
|
||
|
|
this constraint by setting the PCRE_DUPNAMES option at compile time. (Duplicate
|
||
|
|
names are also always permitted for subpatterns with the same number, set up as
|
||
|
|
described in the previous section.) Duplicate names can be useful for patterns
|
||
|
|
where only one instance of the named parentheses can match. Suppose you want to
|
||
|
|
match the name of a weekday, either as a 3-letter abbreviation or as the full
|
||
|
|
name, and in both cases you want to extract the abbreviation. This pattern
|
||
|
|
(ignoring the line breaks) does the job:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(?<DN>Mon|Fri|Sun)(?:day)?|
|
||
|
|
(?<DN>Tue)(?:sday)?|
|
||
|
|
(?<DN>Wed)(?:nesday)?|
|
||
|
|
(?<DN>Thu)(?:rsday)?|
|
||
|
|
(?<DN>Sat)(?:urday)?
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
There are five capturing substrings, but only one is ever set after a match.
|
||
|
|
(An alternative way of solving this problem is to use a "branch reset"
|
||
|
|
subpattern, as described in the previous section.)
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
The convenience function for extracting the data by name returns the substring
|
||
|
|
for the first (and in this example, the only) subpattern of that name that
|
||
|
|
matched. This saves searching to find which numbered subpattern it was.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
If you make a back reference to a non-unique named subpattern from elsewhere in
|
||
|
|
the pattern, the one that corresponds to the first occurrence of the name is
|
||
|
|
used. In the absence of duplicate numbers (see the previous section) this is
|
||
|
|
the one with the lowest number. If you use a named reference in a condition
|
||
|
|
test (see the
|
||
|
|
<a href="#conditions">section about conditions</a>
|
||
|
|
below), either to check whether a subpattern has matched, or to check for
|
||
|
|
recursion, all subpatterns with the same name are tested. If the condition is
|
||
|
|
true for any one of them, the overall condition is true. This is the same
|
||
|
|
behaviour as testing by number. For further details of the interfaces for
|
||
|
|
handling named subpatterns, see the
|
||
|
|
<a href="pcreapi.html"><b>pcreapi</b></a>
|
||
|
|
documentation.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
<b>Warning:</b> You cannot use different names to distinguish between two
|
||
|
|
subpatterns with the same number because PCRE uses only the numbers when
|
||
|
|
matching. For this reason, an error is given at compile time if different names
|
||
|
|
are given to subpatterns with the same number. However, you can give the same
|
||
|
|
name to subpatterns with the same number, even when PCRE_DUPNAMES is not set.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<br><a name="SEC16" href="#TOC1">REPETITION</a><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Repetition is specified by quantifiers, which can follow any of the following
|
||
|
|
items:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
a literal data character
|
||
|
|
the dot metacharacter
|
||
|
|
the \C escape sequence
|
||
|
|
the \X escape sequence
|
||
|
|
the \R escape sequence
|
||
|
|
an escape such as \d or \pL that matches a single character
|
||
|
|
a character class
|
||
|
|
a back reference (see next section)
|
||
|
|
a parenthesized subpattern (including assertions)
|
||
|
|
a subroutine call to a subpattern (recursive or otherwise)
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
The general repetition quantifier specifies a minimum and maximum number of
|
||
|
|
permitted matches, by giving the two numbers in curly brackets (braces),
|
||
|
|
separated by a comma. The numbers must be less than 65536, and the first must
|
||
|
|
be less than or equal to the second. For example:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
z{2,4}
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
matches "zz", "zzz", or "zzzz". A closing brace on its own is not a special
|
||
|
|
character. If the second number is omitted, but the comma is present, there is
|
||
|
|
no upper limit; if the second number and the comma are both omitted, the
|
||
|
|
quantifier specifies an exact number of required matches. Thus
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
[aeiou]{3,}
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
matches at least 3 successive vowels, but may match many more, while
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
\d{8}
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
matches exactly 8 digits. An opening curly bracket that appears in a position
|
||
|
|
where a quantifier is not allowed, or one that does not match the syntax of a
|
||
|
|
quantifier, is taken as a literal character. For example, {,6} is not a
|
||
|
|
quantifier, but a literal string of four characters.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
In UTF modes, quantifiers apply to characters rather than to individual data
|
||
|
|
units. Thus, for example, \x{100}{2} matches two characters, each of
|
||
|
|
which is represented by a two-byte sequence in a UTF-8 string. Similarly,
|
||
|
|
\X{3} matches three Unicode extended grapheme clusters, each of which may be
|
||
|
|
several data units long (and they may be of different lengths).
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
The quantifier {0} is permitted, causing the expression to behave as if the
|
||
|
|
previous item and the quantifier were not present. This may be useful for
|
||
|
|
subpatterns that are referenced as
|
||
|
|
<a href="#subpatternsassubroutines">subroutines</a>
|
||
|
|
from elsewhere in the pattern (but see also the section entitled
|
||
|
|
<a href="#subdefine">"Defining subpatterns for use by reference only"</a>
|
||
|
|
below). Items other than subpatterns that have a {0} quantifier are omitted
|
||
|
|
from the compiled pattern.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
For convenience, the three most common quantifiers have single-character
|
||
|
|
abbreviations:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
* is equivalent to {0,}
|
||
|
|
+ is equivalent to {1,}
|
||
|
|
? is equivalent to {0,1}
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
It is possible to construct infinite loops by following a subpattern that can
|
||
|
|
match no characters with a quantifier that has no upper limit, for example:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(a?)*
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
Earlier versions of Perl and PCRE used to give an error at compile time for
|
||
|
|
such patterns. However, because there are cases where this can be useful, such
|
||
|
|
patterns are now accepted, but if any repetition of the subpattern does in fact
|
||
|
|
match no characters, the loop is forcibly broken.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
By default, the quantifiers are "greedy", that is, they match as much as
|
||
|
|
possible (up to the maximum number of permitted times), without causing the
|
||
|
|
rest of the pattern to fail. The classic example of where this gives problems
|
||
|
|
is in trying to match comments in C programs. These appear between /* and */
|
||
|
|
and within the comment, individual * and / characters may appear. An attempt to
|
||
|
|
match C comments by applying the pattern
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
/\*.*\*/
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
to the string
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
/* first comment */ not comment /* second comment */
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
fails, because it matches the entire string owing to the greediness of the .*
|
||
|
|
item.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
However, if a quantifier is followed by a question mark, it ceases to be
|
||
|
|
greedy, and instead matches the minimum number of times possible, so the
|
||
|
|
pattern
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
/\*.*?\*/
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
does the right thing with the C comments. The meaning of the various
|
||
|
|
quantifiers is not otherwise changed, just the preferred number of matches.
|
||
|
|
Do not confuse this use of question mark with its use as a quantifier in its
|
||
|
|
own right. Because it has two uses, it can sometimes appear doubled, as in
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
\d??\d
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
which matches one digit by preference, but can match two if that is the only
|
||
|
|
way the rest of the pattern matches.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
If the PCRE_UNGREEDY option is set (an option that is not available in Perl),
|
||
|
|
the quantifiers are not greedy by default, but individual ones can be made
|
||
|
|
greedy by following them with a question mark. In other words, it inverts the
|
||
|
|
default behaviour.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
When a parenthesized subpattern is quantified with a minimum repeat count that
|
||
|
|
is greater than 1 or with a limited maximum, more memory is required for the
|
||
|
|
compiled pattern, in proportion to the size of the minimum or maximum.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
If a pattern starts with .* or .{0,} and the PCRE_DOTALL option (equivalent
|
||
|
|
to Perl's /s) is set, thus allowing the dot to match newlines, the pattern is
|
||
|
|
implicitly anchored, because whatever follows will be tried against every
|
||
|
|
character position in the subject string, so there is no point in retrying the
|
||
|
|
overall match at any position after the first. PCRE normally treats such a
|
||
|
|
pattern as though it were preceded by \A.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
In cases where it is known that the subject string contains no newlines, it is
|
||
|
|
worth setting PCRE_DOTALL in order to obtain this optimization, or
|
||
|
|
alternatively using ^ to indicate anchoring explicitly.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
However, there are some cases where the optimization cannot be used. When .*
|
||
|
|
is inside capturing parentheses that are the subject of a back reference
|
||
|
|
elsewhere in the pattern, a match at the start may fail where a later one
|
||
|
|
succeeds. Consider, for example:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(.*)abc\1
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
If the subject is "xyz123abc123" the match point is the fourth character. For
|
||
|
|
this reason, such a pattern is not implicitly anchored.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Another case where implicit anchoring is not applied is when the leading .* is
|
||
|
|
inside an atomic group. Once again, a match at the start may fail where a later
|
||
|
|
one succeeds. Consider this pattern:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(?>.*?a)b
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
It matches "ab" in the subject "aab". The use of the backtracking control verbs
|
||
|
|
(*PRUNE) and (*SKIP) also disable this optimization.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
When a capturing subpattern is repeated, the value captured is the substring
|
||
|
|
that matched the final iteration. For example, after
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(tweedle[dume]{3}\s*)+
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
has matched "tweedledum tweedledee" the value of the captured substring is
|
||
|
|
"tweedledee". However, if there are nested capturing subpatterns, the
|
||
|
|
corresponding captured values may have been set in previous iterations. For
|
||
|
|
example, after
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
/(a|(b))+/
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
matches "aba" the value of the second captured substring is "b".
|
||
|
|
<a name="atomicgroup"></a></P>
|
||
|
|
<br><a name="SEC17" href="#TOC1">ATOMIC GROUPING AND POSSESSIVE QUANTIFIERS</a><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
With both maximizing ("greedy") and minimizing ("ungreedy" or "lazy")
|
||
|
|
repetition, failure of what follows normally causes the repeated item to be
|
||
|
|
re-evaluated to see if a different number of repeats allows the rest of the
|
||
|
|
pattern to match. Sometimes it is useful to prevent this, either to change the
|
||
|
|
nature of the match, or to cause it fail earlier than it otherwise might, when
|
||
|
|
the author of the pattern knows there is no point in carrying on.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Consider, for example, the pattern \d+foo when applied to the subject line
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
123456bar
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
After matching all 6 digits and then failing to match "foo", the normal
|
||
|
|
action of the matcher is to try again with only 5 digits matching the \d+
|
||
|
|
item, and then with 4, and so on, before ultimately failing. "Atomic grouping"
|
||
|
|
(a term taken from Jeffrey Friedl's book) provides the means for specifying
|
||
|
|
that once a subpattern has matched, it is not to be re-evaluated in this way.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
If we use atomic grouping for the previous example, the matcher gives up
|
||
|
|
immediately on failing to match "foo" the first time. The notation is a kind of
|
||
|
|
special parenthesis, starting with (?> as in this example:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(?>\d+)foo
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
This kind of parenthesis "locks up" the part of the pattern it contains once
|
||
|
|
it has matched, and a failure further into the pattern is prevented from
|
||
|
|
backtracking into it. Backtracking past it to previous items, however, works as
|
||
|
|
normal.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
An alternative description is that a subpattern of this type matches the string
|
||
|
|
of characters that an identical standalone pattern would match, if anchored at
|
||
|
|
the current point in the subject string.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Atomic grouping subpatterns are not capturing subpatterns. Simple cases such as
|
||
|
|
the above example can be thought of as a maximizing repeat that must swallow
|
||
|
|
everything it can. So, while both \d+ and \d+? are prepared to adjust the
|
||
|
|
number of digits they match in order to make the rest of the pattern match,
|
||
|
|
(?>\d+) can only match an entire sequence of digits.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Atomic groups in general can of course contain arbitrarily complicated
|
||
|
|
subpatterns, and can be nested. However, when the subpattern for an atomic
|
||
|
|
group is just a single repeated item, as in the example above, a simpler
|
||
|
|
notation, called a "possessive quantifier" can be used. This consists of an
|
||
|
|
additional + character following a quantifier. Using this notation, the
|
||
|
|
previous example can be rewritten as
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
\d++foo
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
Note that a possessive quantifier can be used with an entire group, for
|
||
|
|
example:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(abc|xyz){2,3}+
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
Possessive quantifiers are always greedy; the setting of the PCRE_UNGREEDY
|
||
|
|
option is ignored. They are a convenient notation for the simpler forms of
|
||
|
|
atomic group. However, there is no difference in the meaning of a possessive
|
||
|
|
quantifier and the equivalent atomic group, though there may be a performance
|
||
|
|
difference; possessive quantifiers should be slightly faster.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
The possessive quantifier syntax is an extension to the Perl 5.8 syntax.
|
||
|
|
Jeffrey Friedl originated the idea (and the name) in the first edition of his
|
||
|
|
book. Mike McCloskey liked it, so implemented it when he built Sun's Java
|
||
|
|
package, and PCRE copied it from there. It ultimately found its way into Perl
|
||
|
|
at release 5.10.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
PCRE has an optimization that automatically "possessifies" certain simple
|
||
|
|
pattern constructs. For example, the sequence A+B is treated as A++B because
|
||
|
|
there is no point in backtracking into a sequence of A's when B must follow.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
When a pattern contains an unlimited repeat inside a subpattern that can itself
|
||
|
|
be repeated an unlimited number of times, the use of an atomic group is the
|
||
|
|
only way to avoid some failing matches taking a very long time indeed. The
|
||
|
|
pattern
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(\D+|<\d+>)*[!?]
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
matches an unlimited number of substrings that either consist of non-digits, or
|
||
|
|
digits enclosed in <>, followed by either ! or ?. When it matches, it runs
|
||
|
|
quickly. However, if it is applied to
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
it takes a long time before reporting failure. This is because the string can
|
||
|
|
be divided between the internal \D+ repeat and the external * repeat in a
|
||
|
|
large number of ways, and all have to be tried. (The example uses [!?] rather
|
||
|
|
than a single character at the end, because both PCRE and Perl have an
|
||
|
|
optimization that allows for fast failure when a single character is used. They
|
||
|
|
remember the last single character that is required for a match, and fail early
|
||
|
|
if it is not present in the string.) If the pattern is changed so that it uses
|
||
|
|
an atomic group, like this:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
((?>\D+)|<\d+>)*[!?]
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
sequences of non-digits cannot be broken, and failure happens quickly.
|
||
|
|
<a name="backreferences"></a></P>
|
||
|
|
<br><a name="SEC18" href="#TOC1">BACK REFERENCES</a><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Outside a character class, a backslash followed by a digit greater than 0 (and
|
||
|
|
possibly further digits) is a back reference to a capturing subpattern earlier
|
||
|
|
(that is, to its left) in the pattern, provided there have been that many
|
||
|
|
previous capturing left parentheses.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
However, if the decimal number following the backslash is less than 10, it is
|
||
|
|
always taken as a back reference, and causes an error only if there are not
|
||
|
|
that many capturing left parentheses in the entire pattern. In other words, the
|
||
|
|
parentheses that are referenced need not be to the left of the reference for
|
||
|
|
numbers less than 10. A "forward back reference" of this type can make sense
|
||
|
|
when a repetition is involved and the subpattern to the right has participated
|
||
|
|
in an earlier iteration.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
It is not possible to have a numerical "forward back reference" to a subpattern
|
||
|
|
whose number is 10 or more using this syntax because a sequence such as \50 is
|
||
|
|
interpreted as a character defined in octal. See the subsection entitled
|
||
|
|
"Non-printing characters"
|
||
|
|
<a href="#digitsafterbackslash">above</a>
|
||
|
|
for further details of the handling of digits following a backslash. There is
|
||
|
|
no such problem when named parentheses are used. A back reference to any
|
||
|
|
subpattern is possible using named parentheses (see below).
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Another way of avoiding the ambiguity inherent in the use of digits following a
|
||
|
|
backslash is to use the \g escape sequence. This escape must be followed by an
|
||
|
|
unsigned number or a negative number, optionally enclosed in braces. These
|
||
|
|
examples are all identical:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(ring), \1
|
||
|
|
(ring), \g1
|
||
|
|
(ring), \g{1}
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
An unsigned number specifies an absolute reference without the ambiguity that
|
||
|
|
is present in the older syntax. It is also useful when literal digits follow
|
||
|
|
the reference. A negative number is a relative reference. Consider this
|
||
|
|
example:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(abc(def)ghi)\g{-1}
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
The sequence \g{-1} is a reference to the most recently started capturing
|
||
|
|
subpattern before \g, that is, is it equivalent to \2 in this example.
|
||
|
|
Similarly, \g{-2} would be equivalent to \1. The use of relative references
|
||
|
|
can be helpful in long patterns, and also in patterns that are created by
|
||
|
|
joining together fragments that contain references within themselves.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
A back reference matches whatever actually matched the capturing subpattern in
|
||
|
|
the current subject string, rather than anything matching the subpattern
|
||
|
|
itself (see
|
||
|
|
<a href="#subpatternsassubroutines">"Subpatterns as subroutines"</a>
|
||
|
|
below for a way of doing that). So the pattern
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(sens|respons)e and \1ibility
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
matches "sense and sensibility" and "response and responsibility", but not
|
||
|
|
"sense and responsibility". If caseful matching is in force at the time of the
|
||
|
|
back reference, the case of letters is relevant. For example,
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
((?i)rah)\s+\1
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
matches "rah rah" and "RAH RAH", but not "RAH rah", even though the original
|
||
|
|
capturing subpattern is matched caselessly.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
There are several different ways of writing back references to named
|
||
|
|
subpatterns. The .NET syntax \k{name} and the Perl syntax \k<name> or
|
||
|
|
\k'name' are supported, as is the Python syntax (?P=name). Perl 5.10's unified
|
||
|
|
back reference syntax, in which \g can be used for both numeric and named
|
||
|
|
references, is also supported. We could rewrite the above example in any of
|
||
|
|
the following ways:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(?<p1>(?i)rah)\s+\k<p1>
|
||
|
|
(?'p1'(?i)rah)\s+\k{p1}
|
||
|
|
(?P<p1>(?i)rah)\s+(?P=p1)
|
||
|
|
(?<p1>(?i)rah)\s+\g{p1}
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
A subpattern that is referenced by name may appear in the pattern before or
|
||
|
|
after the reference.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
There may be more than one back reference to the same subpattern. If a
|
||
|
|
subpattern has not actually been used in a particular match, any back
|
||
|
|
references to it always fail by default. For example, the pattern
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(a|(bc))\2
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
always fails if it starts to match "a" rather than "bc". However, if the
|
||
|
|
PCRE_JAVASCRIPT_COMPAT option is set at compile time, a back reference to an
|
||
|
|
unset value matches an empty string.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Because there may be many capturing parentheses in a pattern, all digits
|
||
|
|
following a backslash are taken as part of a potential back reference number.
|
||
|
|
If the pattern continues with a digit character, some delimiter must be used to
|
||
|
|
terminate the back reference. If the PCRE_EXTENDED option is set, this can be
|
||
|
|
white space. Otherwise, the \g{ syntax or an empty comment (see
|
||
|
|
<a href="#comments">"Comments"</a>
|
||
|
|
below) can be used.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<br><b>
|
||
|
|
Recursive back references
|
||
|
|
</b><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
A back reference that occurs inside the parentheses to which it refers fails
|
||
|
|
when the subpattern is first used, so, for example, (a\1) never matches.
|
||
|
|
However, such references can be useful inside repeated subpatterns. For
|
||
|
|
example, the pattern
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(a|b\1)+
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
matches any number of "a"s and also "aba", "ababbaa" etc. At each iteration of
|
||
|
|
the subpattern, the back reference matches the character string corresponding
|
||
|
|
to the previous iteration. In order for this to work, the pattern must be such
|
||
|
|
that the first iteration does not need to match the back reference. This can be
|
||
|
|
done using alternation, as in the example above, or by a quantifier with a
|
||
|
|
minimum of zero.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Back references of this type cause the group that they reference to be treated
|
||
|
|
as an
|
||
|
|
<a href="#atomicgroup">atomic group.</a>
|
||
|
|
Once the whole group has been matched, a subsequent matching failure cannot
|
||
|
|
cause backtracking into the middle of the group.
|
||
|
|
<a name="bigassertions"></a></P>
|
||
|
|
<br><a name="SEC19" href="#TOC1">ASSERTIONS</a><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
An assertion is a test on the characters following or preceding the current
|
||
|
|
matching point that does not actually consume any characters. The simple
|
||
|
|
assertions coded as \b, \B, \A, \G, \Z, \z, ^ and $ are described
|
||
|
|
<a href="#smallassertions">above.</a>
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
More complicated assertions are coded as subpatterns. There are two kinds:
|
||
|
|
those that look ahead of the current position in the subject string, and those
|
||
|
|
that look behind it. An assertion subpattern is matched in the normal way,
|
||
|
|
except that it does not cause the current matching position to be changed.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Assertion subpatterns are not capturing subpatterns. If such an assertion
|
||
|
|
contains capturing subpatterns within it, these are counted for the purposes of
|
||
|
|
numbering the capturing subpatterns in the whole pattern. However, substring
|
||
|
|
capturing is carried out only for positive assertions, because it does not make
|
||
|
|
sense for negative assertions.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
For compatibility with Perl, assertion subpatterns may be repeated; though
|
||
|
|
it makes no sense to assert the same thing several times, the side effect of
|
||
|
|
capturing parentheses may occasionally be useful. In practice, there only three
|
||
|
|
cases:
|
||
|
|
<br>
|
||
|
|
<br>
|
||
|
|
(1) If the quantifier is {0}, the assertion is never obeyed during matching.
|
||
|
|
However, it may contain internal capturing parenthesized groups that are called
|
||
|
|
from elsewhere via the
|
||
|
|
<a href="#subpatternsassubroutines">subroutine mechanism.</a>
|
||
|
|
<br>
|
||
|
|
<br>
|
||
|
|
(2) If quantifier is {0,n} where n is greater than zero, it is treated as if it
|
||
|
|
were {0,1}. At run time, the rest of the pattern match is tried with and
|
||
|
|
without the assertion, the order depending on the greediness of the quantifier.
|
||
|
|
<br>
|
||
|
|
<br>
|
||
|
|
(3) If the minimum repetition is greater than zero, the quantifier is ignored.
|
||
|
|
The assertion is obeyed just once when encountered during matching.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<br><b>
|
||
|
|
Lookahead assertions
|
||
|
|
</b><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Lookahead assertions start with (?= for positive assertions and (?! for
|
||
|
|
negative assertions. For example,
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
\w+(?=;)
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
matches a word followed by a semicolon, but does not include the semicolon in
|
||
|
|
the match, and
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
foo(?!bar)
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
matches any occurrence of "foo" that is not followed by "bar". Note that the
|
||
|
|
apparently similar pattern
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(?!foo)bar
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
does not find an occurrence of "bar" that is preceded by something other than
|
||
|
|
"foo"; it finds any occurrence of "bar" whatsoever, because the assertion
|
||
|
|
(?!foo) is always true when the next three characters are "bar". A
|
||
|
|
lookbehind assertion is needed to achieve the other effect.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
If you want to force a matching failure at some point in a pattern, the most
|
||
|
|
convenient way to do it is with (?!) because an empty string always matches, so
|
||
|
|
an assertion that requires there not to be an empty string must always fail.
|
||
|
|
The backtracking control verb (*FAIL) or (*F) is a synonym for (?!).
|
||
|
|
<a name="lookbehind"></a></P>
|
||
|
|
<br><b>
|
||
|
|
Lookbehind assertions
|
||
|
|
</b><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Lookbehind assertions start with (?<= for positive assertions and (?<! for
|
||
|
|
negative assertions. For example,
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(?<!foo)bar
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
does find an occurrence of "bar" that is not preceded by "foo". The contents of
|
||
|
|
a lookbehind assertion are restricted such that all the strings it matches must
|
||
|
|
have a fixed length. However, if there are several top-level alternatives, they
|
||
|
|
do not all have to have the same fixed length. Thus
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(?<=bullock|donkey)
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
is permitted, but
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(?<!dogs?|cats?)
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
causes an error at compile time. Branches that match different length strings
|
||
|
|
are permitted only at the top level of a lookbehind assertion. This is an
|
||
|
|
extension compared with Perl, which requires all branches to match the same
|
||
|
|
length of string. An assertion such as
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(?<=ab(c|de))
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
is not permitted, because its single top-level branch can match two different
|
||
|
|
lengths, but it is acceptable to PCRE if rewritten to use two top-level
|
||
|
|
branches:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(?<=abc|abde)
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
In some cases, the escape sequence \K
|
||
|
|
<a href="#resetmatchstart">(see above)</a>
|
||
|
|
can be used instead of a lookbehind assertion to get round the fixed-length
|
||
|
|
restriction.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
The implementation of lookbehind assertions is, for each alternative, to
|
||
|
|
temporarily move the current position back by the fixed length and then try to
|
||
|
|
match. If there are insufficient characters before the current position, the
|
||
|
|
assertion fails.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
In a UTF mode, PCRE does not allow the \C escape (which matches a single data
|
||
|
|
unit even in a UTF mode) to appear in lookbehind assertions, because it makes
|
||
|
|
it impossible to calculate the length of the lookbehind. The \X and \R
|
||
|
|
escapes, which can match different numbers of data units, are also not
|
||
|
|
permitted.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
<a href="#subpatternsassubroutines">"Subroutine"</a>
|
||
|
|
calls (see below) such as (?2) or (?&X) are permitted in lookbehinds, as long
|
||
|
|
as the subpattern matches a fixed-length string.
|
||
|
|
<a href="#recursion">Recursion,</a>
|
||
|
|
however, is not supported.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Possessive quantifiers can be used in conjunction with lookbehind assertions to
|
||
|
|
specify efficient matching of fixed-length strings at the end of subject
|
||
|
|
strings. Consider a simple pattern such as
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
abcd$
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
when applied to a long string that does not match. Because matching proceeds
|
||
|
|
from left to right, PCRE will look for each "a" in the subject and then see if
|
||
|
|
what follows matches the rest of the pattern. If the pattern is specified as
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
^.*abcd$
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
the initial .* matches the entire string at first, but when this fails (because
|
||
|
|
there is no following "a"), it backtracks to match all but the last character,
|
||
|
|
then all but the last two characters, and so on. Once again the search for "a"
|
||
|
|
covers the entire string, from right to left, so we are no better off. However,
|
||
|
|
if the pattern is written as
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
^.*+(?<=abcd)
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
there can be no backtracking for the .*+ item; it can match only the entire
|
||
|
|
string. The subsequent lookbehind assertion does a single test on the last four
|
||
|
|
characters. If it fails, the match fails immediately. For long strings, this
|
||
|
|
approach makes a significant difference to the processing time.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<br><b>
|
||
|
|
Using multiple assertions
|
||
|
|
</b><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Several assertions (of any sort) may occur in succession. For example,
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(?<=\d{3})(?<!999)foo
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
matches "foo" preceded by three digits that are not "999". Notice that each of
|
||
|
|
the assertions is applied independently at the same point in the subject
|
||
|
|
string. First there is a check that the previous three characters are all
|
||
|
|
digits, and then there is a check that the same three characters are not "999".
|
||
|
|
This pattern does <i>not</i> match "foo" preceded by six characters, the first
|
||
|
|
of which are digits and the last three of which are not "999". For example, it
|
||
|
|
doesn't match "123abcfoo". A pattern to do that is
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(?<=\d{3}...)(?<!999)foo
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
This time the first assertion looks at the preceding six characters, checking
|
||
|
|
that the first three are digits, and then the second assertion checks that the
|
||
|
|
preceding three characters are not "999".
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Assertions can be nested in any combination. For example,
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(?<=(?<!foo)bar)baz
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
matches an occurrence of "baz" that is preceded by "bar" which in turn is not
|
||
|
|
preceded by "foo", while
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(?<=\d{3}(?!999)...)foo
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
is another pattern that matches "foo" preceded by three digits and any three
|
||
|
|
characters that are not "999".
|
||
|
|
<a name="conditions"></a></P>
|
||
|
|
<br><a name="SEC20" href="#TOC1">CONDITIONAL SUBPATTERNS</a><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
It is possible to cause the matching process to obey a subpattern
|
||
|
|
conditionally or to choose between two alternative subpatterns, depending on
|
||
|
|
the result of an assertion, or whether a specific capturing subpattern has
|
||
|
|
already been matched. The two possible forms of conditional subpattern are:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(?(condition)yes-pattern)
|
||
|
|
(?(condition)yes-pattern|no-pattern)
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
If the condition is satisfied, the yes-pattern is used; otherwise the
|
||
|
|
no-pattern (if present) is used. If there are more than two alternatives in the
|
||
|
|
subpattern, a compile-time error occurs. Each of the two alternatives may
|
||
|
|
itself contain nested subpatterns of any form, including conditional
|
||
|
|
subpatterns; the restriction to two alternatives applies only at the level of
|
||
|
|
the condition. This pattern fragment is an example where the alternatives are
|
||
|
|
complex:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(?(1) (A|B|C) | (D | (?(2)E|F) | E) )
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
</PRE>
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
There are four kinds of condition: references to subpatterns, references to
|
||
|
|
recursion, a pseudo-condition called DEFINE, and assertions.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<br><b>
|
||
|
|
Checking for a used subpattern by number
|
||
|
|
</b><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
If the text between the parentheses consists of a sequence of digits, the
|
||
|
|
condition is true if a capturing subpattern of that number has previously
|
||
|
|
matched. If there is more than one capturing subpattern with the same number
|
||
|
|
(see the earlier
|
||
|
|
<a href="#recursion">section about duplicate subpattern numbers),</a>
|
||
|
|
the condition is true if any of them have matched. An alternative notation is
|
||
|
|
to precede the digits with a plus or minus sign. In this case, the subpattern
|
||
|
|
number is relative rather than absolute. The most recently opened parentheses
|
||
|
|
can be referenced by (?(-1), the next most recent by (?(-2), and so on. Inside
|
||
|
|
loops it can also make sense to refer to subsequent groups. The next
|
||
|
|
parentheses to be opened can be referenced as (?(+1), and so on. (The value
|
||
|
|
zero in any of these forms is not used; it provokes a compile-time error.)
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Consider the following pattern, which contains non-significant white space to
|
||
|
|
make it more readable (assume the PCRE_EXTENDED option) and to divide it into
|
||
|
|
three parts for ease of discussion:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
( \( )? [^()]+ (?(1) \) )
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
The first part matches an optional opening parenthesis, and if that
|
||
|
|
character is present, sets it as the first captured substring. The second part
|
||
|
|
matches one or more characters that are not parentheses. The third part is a
|
||
|
|
conditional subpattern that tests whether or not the first set of parentheses
|
||
|
|
matched. If they did, that is, if subject started with an opening parenthesis,
|
||
|
|
the condition is true, and so the yes-pattern is executed and a closing
|
||
|
|
parenthesis is required. Otherwise, since no-pattern is not present, the
|
||
|
|
subpattern matches nothing. In other words, this pattern matches a sequence of
|
||
|
|
non-parentheses, optionally enclosed in parentheses.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
If you were embedding this pattern in a larger one, you could use a relative
|
||
|
|
reference:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
...other stuff... ( \( )? [^()]+ (?(-1) \) ) ...
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
This makes the fragment independent of the parentheses in the larger pattern.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<br><b>
|
||
|
|
Checking for a used subpattern by name
|
||
|
|
</b><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Perl uses the syntax (?(<name>)...) or (?('name')...) to test for a used
|
||
|
|
subpattern by name. For compatibility with earlier versions of PCRE, which had
|
||
|
|
this facility before Perl, the syntax (?(name)...) is also recognized. However,
|
||
|
|
there is a possible ambiguity with this syntax, because subpattern names may
|
||
|
|
consist entirely of digits. PCRE looks first for a named subpattern; if it
|
||
|
|
cannot find one and the name consists entirely of digits, PCRE looks for a
|
||
|
|
subpattern of that number, which must be greater than zero. Using subpattern
|
||
|
|
names that consist entirely of digits is not recommended.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Rewriting the above example to use a named subpattern gives this:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(?<OPEN> \( )? [^()]+ (?(<OPEN>) \) )
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
If the name used in a condition of this kind is a duplicate, the test is
|
||
|
|
applied to all subpatterns of the same name, and is true if any one of them has
|
||
|
|
matched.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<br><b>
|
||
|
|
Checking for pattern recursion
|
||
|
|
</b><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
If the condition is the string (R), and there is no subpattern with the name R,
|
||
|
|
the condition is true if a recursive call to the whole pattern or any
|
||
|
|
subpattern has been made. If digits or a name preceded by ampersand follow the
|
||
|
|
letter R, for example:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(?(R3)...) or (?(R&name)...)
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
the condition is true if the most recent recursion is into a subpattern whose
|
||
|
|
number or name is given. This condition does not check the entire recursion
|
||
|
|
stack. If the name used in a condition of this kind is a duplicate, the test is
|
||
|
|
applied to all subpatterns of the same name, and is true if any one of them is
|
||
|
|
the most recent recursion.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
At "top level", all these recursion test conditions are false.
|
||
|
|
<a href="#recursion">The syntax for recursive patterns</a>
|
||
|
|
is described below.
|
||
|
|
<a name="subdefine"></a></P>
|
||
|
|
<br><b>
|
||
|
|
Defining subpatterns for use by reference only
|
||
|
|
</b><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
If the condition is the string (DEFINE), and there is no subpattern with the
|
||
|
|
name DEFINE, the condition is always false. In this case, there may be only one
|
||
|
|
alternative in the subpattern. It is always skipped if control reaches this
|
||
|
|
point in the pattern; the idea of DEFINE is that it can be used to define
|
||
|
|
subroutines that can be referenced from elsewhere. (The use of
|
||
|
|
<a href="#subpatternsassubroutines">subroutines</a>
|
||
|
|
is described below.) For example, a pattern to match an IPv4 address such as
|
||
|
|
"192.168.23.245" could be written like this (ignore white space and line
|
||
|
|
breaks):
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(?(DEFINE) (?<byte> 2[0-4]\d | 25[0-5] | 1\d\d | [1-9]?\d) )
|
||
|
|
\b (?&byte) (\.(?&byte)){3} \b
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
The first part of the pattern is a DEFINE group inside which a another group
|
||
|
|
named "byte" is defined. This matches an individual component of an IPv4
|
||
|
|
address (a number less than 256). When matching takes place, this part of the
|
||
|
|
pattern is skipped because DEFINE acts like a false condition. The rest of the
|
||
|
|
pattern uses references to the named group to match the four dot-separated
|
||
|
|
components of an IPv4 address, insisting on a word boundary at each end.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<br><b>
|
||
|
|
Assertion conditions
|
||
|
|
</b><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
If the condition is not in any of the above formats, it must be an assertion.
|
||
|
|
This may be a positive or negative lookahead or lookbehind assertion. Consider
|
||
|
|
this pattern, again containing non-significant white space, and with the two
|
||
|
|
alternatives on the second line:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(?(?=[^a-z]*[a-z])
|
||
|
|
\d{2}-[a-z]{3}-\d{2} | \d{2}-\d{2}-\d{2} )
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
The condition is a positive lookahead assertion that matches an optional
|
||
|
|
sequence of non-letters followed by a letter. In other words, it tests for the
|
||
|
|
presence of at least one letter in the subject. If a letter is found, the
|
||
|
|
subject is matched against the first alternative; otherwise it is matched
|
||
|
|
against the second. This pattern matches strings in one of the two forms
|
||
|
|
dd-aaa-dd or dd-dd-dd, where aaa are letters and dd are digits.
|
||
|
|
<a name="comments"></a></P>
|
||
|
|
<br><a name="SEC21" href="#TOC1">COMMENTS</a><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
There are two ways of including comments in patterns that are processed by
|
||
|
|
PCRE. In both cases, the start of the comment must not be in a character class,
|
||
|
|
nor in the middle of any other sequence of related characters such as (?: or a
|
||
|
|
subpattern name or number. The characters that make up a comment play no part
|
||
|
|
in the pattern matching.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
The sequence (?# marks the start of a comment that continues up to the next
|
||
|
|
closing parenthesis. Nested parentheses are not permitted. If the PCRE_EXTENDED
|
||
|
|
option is set, an unescaped # character also introduces a comment, which in
|
||
|
|
this case continues to immediately after the next newline character or
|
||
|
|
character sequence in the pattern. Which characters are interpreted as newlines
|
||
|
|
is controlled by the options passed to a compiling function or by a special
|
||
|
|
sequence at the start of the pattern, as described in the section entitled
|
||
|
|
<a href="#newlines">"Newline conventions"</a>
|
||
|
|
above. Note that the end of this type of comment is a literal newline sequence
|
||
|
|
in the pattern; escape sequences that happen to represent a newline do not
|
||
|
|
count. For example, consider this pattern when PCRE_EXTENDED is set, and the
|
||
|
|
default newline convention is in force:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
abc #comment \n still comment
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
On encountering the # character, <b>pcre_compile()</b> skips along, looking for
|
||
|
|
a newline in the pattern. The sequence \n is still literal at this stage, so
|
||
|
|
it does not terminate the comment. Only an actual character with the code value
|
||
|
|
0x0a (the default newline) does so.
|
||
|
|
<a name="recursion"></a></P>
|
||
|
|
<br><a name="SEC22" href="#TOC1">RECURSIVE PATTERNS</a><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Consider the problem of matching a string in parentheses, allowing for
|
||
|
|
unlimited nested parentheses. Without the use of recursion, the best that can
|
||
|
|
be done is to use a pattern that matches up to some fixed depth of nesting. It
|
||
|
|
is not possible to handle an arbitrary nesting depth.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
For some time, Perl has provided a facility that allows regular expressions to
|
||
|
|
recurse (amongst other things). It does this by interpolating Perl code in the
|
||
|
|
expression at run time, and the code can refer to the expression itself. A Perl
|
||
|
|
pattern using code interpolation to solve the parentheses problem can be
|
||
|
|
created like this:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
$re = qr{\( (?: (?>[^()]+) | (?p{$re}) )* \)}x;
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
The (?p{...}) item interpolates Perl code at run time, and in this case refers
|
||
|
|
recursively to the pattern in which it appears.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Obviously, PCRE cannot support the interpolation of Perl code. Instead, it
|
||
|
|
supports special syntax for recursion of the entire pattern, and also for
|
||
|
|
individual subpattern recursion. After its introduction in PCRE and Python,
|
||
|
|
this kind of recursion was subsequently introduced into Perl at release 5.10.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
A special item that consists of (? followed by a number greater than zero and a
|
||
|
|
closing parenthesis is a recursive subroutine call of the subpattern of the
|
||
|
|
given number, provided that it occurs inside that subpattern. (If not, it is a
|
||
|
|
<a href="#subpatternsassubroutines">non-recursive subroutine</a>
|
||
|
|
call, which is described in the next section.) The special item (?R) or (?0) is
|
||
|
|
a recursive call of the entire regular expression.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
This PCRE pattern solves the nested parentheses problem (assume the
|
||
|
|
PCRE_EXTENDED option is set so that white space is ignored):
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
\( ( [^()]++ | (?R) )* \)
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
First it matches an opening parenthesis. Then it matches any number of
|
||
|
|
substrings which can either be a sequence of non-parentheses, or a recursive
|
||
|
|
match of the pattern itself (that is, a correctly parenthesized substring).
|
||
|
|
Finally there is a closing parenthesis. Note the use of a possessive quantifier
|
||
|
|
to avoid backtracking into sequences of non-parentheses.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
If this were part of a larger pattern, you would not want to recurse the entire
|
||
|
|
pattern, so instead you could use this:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
( \( ( [^()]++ | (?1) )* \) )
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
We have put the pattern into parentheses, and caused the recursion to refer to
|
||
|
|
them instead of the whole pattern.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
In a larger pattern, keeping track of parenthesis numbers can be tricky. This
|
||
|
|
is made easier by the use of relative references. Instead of (?1) in the
|
||
|
|
pattern above you can write (?-2) to refer to the second most recently opened
|
||
|
|
parentheses preceding the recursion. In other words, a negative number counts
|
||
|
|
capturing parentheses leftwards from the point at which it is encountered.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
It is also possible to refer to subsequently opened parentheses, by writing
|
||
|
|
references such as (?+2). However, these cannot be recursive because the
|
||
|
|
reference is not inside the parentheses that are referenced. They are always
|
||
|
|
<a href="#subpatternsassubroutines">non-recursive subroutine</a>
|
||
|
|
calls, as described in the next section.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
An alternative approach is to use named parentheses instead. The Perl syntax
|
||
|
|
for this is (?&name); PCRE's earlier syntax (?P>name) is also supported. We
|
||
|
|
could rewrite the above example as follows:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(?<pn> \( ( [^()]++ | (?&pn) )* \) )
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
If there is more than one subpattern with the same name, the earliest one is
|
||
|
|
used.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
This particular example pattern that we have been looking at contains nested
|
||
|
|
unlimited repeats, and so the use of a possessive quantifier for matching
|
||
|
|
strings of non-parentheses is important when applying the pattern to strings
|
||
|
|
that do not match. For example, when this pattern is applied to
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa()
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
it yields "no match" quickly. However, if a possessive quantifier is not used,
|
||
|
|
the match runs for a very long time indeed because there are so many different
|
||
|
|
ways the + and * repeats can carve up the subject, and all have to be tested
|
||
|
|
before failure can be reported.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
At the end of a match, the values of capturing parentheses are those from
|
||
|
|
the outermost level. If you want to obtain intermediate values, a callout
|
||
|
|
function can be used (see below and the
|
||
|
|
<a href="pcrecallout.html"><b>pcrecallout</b></a>
|
||
|
|
documentation). If the pattern above is matched against
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(ab(cd)ef)
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
the value for the inner capturing parentheses (numbered 2) is "ef", which is
|
||
|
|
the last value taken on at the top level. If a capturing subpattern is not
|
||
|
|
matched at the top level, its final captured value is unset, even if it was
|
||
|
|
(temporarily) set at a deeper level during the matching process.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
If there are more than 15 capturing parentheses in a pattern, PCRE has to
|
||
|
|
obtain extra memory to store data during a recursion, which it does by using
|
||
|
|
<b>pcre_malloc</b>, freeing it via <b>pcre_free</b> afterwards. If no memory can
|
||
|
|
be obtained, the match fails with the PCRE_ERROR_NOMEMORY error.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Do not confuse the (?R) item with the condition (R), which tests for recursion.
|
||
|
|
Consider this pattern, which matches text in angle brackets, allowing for
|
||
|
|
arbitrary nesting. Only digits are allowed in nested brackets (that is, when
|
||
|
|
recursing), whereas any characters are permitted at the outer level.
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
< (?: (?(R) \d++ | [^<>]*+) | (?R)) * >
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
In this pattern, (?(R) is the start of a conditional subpattern, with two
|
||
|
|
different alternatives for the recursive and non-recursive cases. The (?R) item
|
||
|
|
is the actual recursive call.
|
||
|
|
<a name="recursiondifference"></a></P>
|
||
|
|
<br><b>
|
||
|
|
Differences in recursion processing between PCRE and Perl
|
||
|
|
</b><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Recursion processing in PCRE differs from Perl in two important ways. In PCRE
|
||
|
|
(like Python, but unlike Perl), a recursive subpattern call is always treated
|
||
|
|
as an atomic group. That is, once it has matched some of the subject string, it
|
||
|
|
is never re-entered, even if it contains untried alternatives and there is a
|
||
|
|
subsequent matching failure. This can be illustrated by the following pattern,
|
||
|
|
which purports to match a palindromic string that contains an odd number of
|
||
|
|
characters (for example, "a", "aba", "abcba", "abcdcba"):
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
^(.|(.)(?1)\2)$
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
The idea is that it either matches a single character, or two identical
|
||
|
|
characters surrounding a sub-palindrome. In Perl, this pattern works; in PCRE
|
||
|
|
it does not if the pattern is longer than three characters. Consider the
|
||
|
|
subject string "abcba":
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
At the top level, the first character is matched, but as it is not at the end
|
||
|
|
of the string, the first alternative fails; the second alternative is taken
|
||
|
|
and the recursion kicks in. The recursive call to subpattern 1 successfully
|
||
|
|
matches the next character ("b"). (Note that the beginning and end of line
|
||
|
|
tests are not part of the recursion).
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Back at the top level, the next character ("c") is compared with what
|
||
|
|
subpattern 2 matched, which was "a". This fails. Because the recursion is
|
||
|
|
treated as an atomic group, there are now no backtracking points, and so the
|
||
|
|
entire match fails. (Perl is able, at this point, to re-enter the recursion and
|
||
|
|
try the second alternative.) However, if the pattern is written with the
|
||
|
|
alternatives in the other order, things are different:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
^((.)(?1)\2|.)$
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
This time, the recursing alternative is tried first, and continues to recurse
|
||
|
|
until it runs out of characters, at which point the recursion fails. But this
|
||
|
|
time we do have another alternative to try at the higher level. That is the big
|
||
|
|
difference: in the previous case the remaining alternative is at a deeper
|
||
|
|
recursion level, which PCRE cannot use.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
To change the pattern so that it matches all palindromic strings, not just
|
||
|
|
those with an odd number of characters, it is tempting to change the pattern to
|
||
|
|
this:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
^((.)(?1)\2|.?)$
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
Again, this works in Perl, but not in PCRE, and for the same reason. When a
|
||
|
|
deeper recursion has matched a single character, it cannot be entered again in
|
||
|
|
order to match an empty string. The solution is to separate the two cases, and
|
||
|
|
write out the odd and even cases as alternatives at the higher level:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
^(?:((.)(?1)\2|)|((.)(?3)\4|.))
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
If you want to match typical palindromic phrases, the pattern has to ignore all
|
||
|
|
non-word characters, which can be done like this:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
^\W*+(?:((.)\W*+(?1)\W*+\2|)|((.)\W*+(?3)\W*+\4|\W*+.\W*+))\W*+$
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
If run with the PCRE_CASELESS option, this pattern matches phrases such as "A
|
||
|
|
man, a plan, a canal: Panama!" and it works well in both PCRE and Perl. Note
|
||
|
|
the use of the possessive quantifier *+ to avoid backtracking into sequences of
|
||
|
|
non-word characters. Without this, PCRE takes a great deal longer (ten times or
|
||
|
|
more) to match typical phrases, and Perl takes so long that you think it has
|
||
|
|
gone into a loop.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
<b>WARNING</b>: The palindrome-matching patterns above work only if the subject
|
||
|
|
string does not start with a palindrome that is shorter than the entire string.
|
||
|
|
For example, although "abcba" is correctly matched, if the subject is "ababa",
|
||
|
|
PCRE finds the palindrome "aba" at the start, then fails at top level because
|
||
|
|
the end of the string does not follow. Once again, it cannot jump back into the
|
||
|
|
recursion to try other alternatives, so the entire match fails.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
The second way in which PCRE and Perl differ in their recursion processing is
|
||
|
|
in the handling of captured values. In Perl, when a subpattern is called
|
||
|
|
recursively or as a subpattern (see the next section), it has no access to any
|
||
|
|
values that were captured outside the recursion, whereas in PCRE these values
|
||
|
|
can be referenced. Consider this pattern:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
^(.)(\1|a(?2))
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
In PCRE, this pattern matches "bab". The first capturing parentheses match "b",
|
||
|
|
then in the second group, when the back reference \1 fails to match "b", the
|
||
|
|
second alternative matches "a" and then recurses. In the recursion, \1 does
|
||
|
|
now match "b" and so the whole match succeeds. In Perl, the pattern fails to
|
||
|
|
match because inside the recursive call \1 cannot access the externally set
|
||
|
|
value.
|
||
|
|
<a name="subpatternsassubroutines"></a></P>
|
||
|
|
<br><a name="SEC23" href="#TOC1">SUBPATTERNS AS SUBROUTINES</a><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
If the syntax for a recursive subpattern call (either by number or by
|
||
|
|
name) is used outside the parentheses to which it refers, it operates like a
|
||
|
|
subroutine in a programming language. The called subpattern may be defined
|
||
|
|
before or after the reference. A numbered reference can be absolute or
|
||
|
|
relative, as in these examples:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(...(absolute)...)...(?2)...
|
||
|
|
(...(relative)...)...(?-1)...
|
||
|
|
(...(?+1)...(relative)...
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
An earlier example pointed out that the pattern
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(sens|respons)e and \1ibility
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
matches "sense and sensibility" and "response and responsibility", but not
|
||
|
|
"sense and responsibility". If instead the pattern
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(sens|respons)e and (?1)ibility
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
is used, it does match "sense and responsibility" as well as the other two
|
||
|
|
strings. Another example is given in the discussion of DEFINE above.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
All subroutine calls, whether recursive or not, are always treated as atomic
|
||
|
|
groups. That is, once a subroutine has matched some of the subject string, it
|
||
|
|
is never re-entered, even if it contains untried alternatives and there is a
|
||
|
|
subsequent matching failure. Any capturing parentheses that are set during the
|
||
|
|
subroutine call revert to their previous values afterwards.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Processing options such as case-independence are fixed when a subpattern is
|
||
|
|
defined, so if it is used as a subroutine, such options cannot be changed for
|
||
|
|
different calls. For example, consider this pattern:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(abc)(?i:(?-1))
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
It matches "abcabc". It does not match "abcABC" because the change of
|
||
|
|
processing option does not affect the called subpattern.
|
||
|
|
<a name="onigurumasubroutines"></a></P>
|
||
|
|
<br><a name="SEC24" href="#TOC1">ONIGURUMA SUBROUTINE SYNTAX</a><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
For compatibility with Oniguruma, the non-Perl syntax \g followed by a name or
|
||
|
|
a number enclosed either in angle brackets or single quotes, is an alternative
|
||
|
|
syntax for referencing a subpattern as a subroutine, possibly recursively. Here
|
||
|
|
are two of the examples used above, rewritten using this syntax:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(?<pn> \( ( (?>[^()]+) | \g<pn> )* \) )
|
||
|
|
(sens|respons)e and \g'1'ibility
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
PCRE supports an extension to Oniguruma: if a number is preceded by a
|
||
|
|
plus or a minus sign it is taken as a relative reference. For example:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(abc)(?i:\g<-1>)
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
Note that \g{...} (Perl syntax) and \g<...> (Oniguruma syntax) are <i>not</i>
|
||
|
|
synonymous. The former is a back reference; the latter is a subroutine call.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<br><a name="SEC25" href="#TOC1">CALLOUTS</a><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Perl has a feature whereby using the sequence (?{...}) causes arbitrary Perl
|
||
|
|
code to be obeyed in the middle of matching a regular expression. This makes it
|
||
|
|
possible, amongst other things, to extract different substrings that match the
|
||
|
|
same pair of parentheses when there is a repetition.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
PCRE provides a similar feature, but of course it cannot obey arbitrary Perl
|
||
|
|
code. The feature is called "callout". The caller of PCRE provides an external
|
||
|
|
function by putting its entry point in the global variable <i>pcre_callout</i>
|
||
|
|
(8-bit library) or <i>pcre[16|32]_callout</i> (16-bit or 32-bit library).
|
||
|
|
By default, this variable contains NULL, which disables all calling out.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Within a regular expression, (?C) indicates the points at which the external
|
||
|
|
function is to be called. If you want to identify different callout points, you
|
||
|
|
can put a number less than 256 after the letter C. The default value is zero.
|
||
|
|
For example, this pattern has two callout points:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(?C1)abc(?C2)def
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
If the PCRE_AUTO_CALLOUT flag is passed to a compiling function, callouts are
|
||
|
|
automatically installed before each item in the pattern. They are all numbered
|
||
|
|
255.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
During matching, when PCRE reaches a callout point, the external function is
|
||
|
|
called. It is provided with the number of the callout, the position in the
|
||
|
|
pattern, and, optionally, one item of data originally supplied by the caller of
|
||
|
|
the matching function. The callout function may cause matching to proceed, to
|
||
|
|
backtrack, or to fail altogether. A complete description of the interface to
|
||
|
|
the callout function is given in the
|
||
|
|
<a href="pcrecallout.html"><b>pcrecallout</b></a>
|
||
|
|
documentation.
|
||
|
|
<a name="backtrackcontrol"></a></P>
|
||
|
|
<br><a name="SEC26" href="#TOC1">BACKTRACKING CONTROL</a><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Perl 5.10 introduced a number of "Special Backtracking Control Verbs", which
|
||
|
|
are described in the Perl documentation as "experimental and subject to change
|
||
|
|
or removal in a future version of Perl". It goes on to say: "Their usage in
|
||
|
|
production code should be noted to avoid problems during upgrades." The same
|
||
|
|
remarks apply to the PCRE features described in this section.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Since these verbs are specifically related to backtracking, most of them can be
|
||
|
|
used only when the pattern is to be matched using one of the traditional
|
||
|
|
matching functions, which use a backtracking algorithm. With the exception of
|
||
|
|
(*FAIL), which behaves like a failing negative assertion, they cause an error
|
||
|
|
if encountered by a DFA matching function.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
If any of these verbs are used in an assertion or in a subpattern that is
|
||
|
|
called as a subroutine (whether or not recursively), their effect is confined
|
||
|
|
to that subpattern; it does not extend to the surrounding pattern, with one
|
||
|
|
exception: the name from a *(MARK), (*PRUNE), or (*THEN) that is encountered in
|
||
|
|
a successful positive assertion <i>is</i> passed back when a match succeeds
|
||
|
|
(compare capturing parentheses in assertions). Note that such subpatterns are
|
||
|
|
processed as anchored at the point where they are tested. Note also that Perl's
|
||
|
|
treatment of subroutines and assertions is different in some cases.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
The new verbs make use of what was previously invalid syntax: an opening
|
||
|
|
parenthesis followed by an asterisk. They are generally of the form
|
||
|
|
(*VERB) or (*VERB:NAME). Some may take either form, with differing behaviour,
|
||
|
|
depending on whether or not an argument is present. A name is any sequence of
|
||
|
|
characters that does not include a closing parenthesis. The maximum length of
|
||
|
|
name is 255 in the 8-bit library and 65535 in the 16-bit and 32-bit library.
|
||
|
|
If the name is empty, that is, if the closing parenthesis immediately follows
|
||
|
|
the colon, the effect is as if the colon were not there. Any number of these
|
||
|
|
verbs may occur in a pattern.
|
||
|
|
<a name="nooptimize"></a></P>
|
||
|
|
<br><b>
|
||
|
|
Optimizations that affect backtracking verbs
|
||
|
|
</b><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
PCRE contains some optimizations that are used to speed up matching by running
|
||
|
|
some checks at the start of each match attempt. For example, it may know the
|
||
|
|
minimum length of matching subject, or that a particular character must be
|
||
|
|
present. When one of these optimizations suppresses the running of a match, any
|
||
|
|
included backtracking verbs will not, of course, be processed. You can suppress
|
||
|
|
the start-of-match optimizations by setting the PCRE_NO_START_OPTIMIZE option
|
||
|
|
when calling <b>pcre_compile()</b> or <b>pcre_exec()</b>, or by starting the
|
||
|
|
pattern with (*NO_START_OPT). There is more discussion of this option in the
|
||
|
|
section entitled
|
||
|
|
<a href="pcreapi.html#execoptions">"Option bits for <b>pcre_exec()</b>"</a>
|
||
|
|
in the
|
||
|
|
<a href="pcreapi.html"><b>pcreapi</b></a>
|
||
|
|
documentation.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Experiments with Perl suggest that it too has similar optimizations, sometimes
|
||
|
|
leading to anomalous results.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<br><b>
|
||
|
|
Verbs that act immediately
|
||
|
|
</b><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
The following verbs act as soon as they are encountered. They may not be
|
||
|
|
followed by a name.
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(*ACCEPT)
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
This verb causes the match to end successfully, skipping the remainder of the
|
||
|
|
pattern. However, when it is inside a subpattern that is called as a
|
||
|
|
subroutine, only that subpattern is ended successfully. Matching then continues
|
||
|
|
at the outer level. If (*ACCEPT) is inside capturing parentheses, the data so
|
||
|
|
far is captured. For example:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
A((?:A|B(*ACCEPT)|C)D)
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
This matches "AB", "AAD", or "ACD"; when it matches "AB", "B" is captured by
|
||
|
|
the outer parentheses.
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(*FAIL) or (*F)
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
This verb causes a matching failure, forcing backtracking to occur. It is
|
||
|
|
equivalent to (?!) but easier to read. The Perl documentation notes that it is
|
||
|
|
probably useful only when combined with (?{}) or (??{}). Those are, of course,
|
||
|
|
Perl features that are not present in PCRE. The nearest equivalent is the
|
||
|
|
callout feature, as for example in this pattern:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
a+(?C)(*FAIL)
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
A match with the string "aaaa" always fails, but the callout is taken before
|
||
|
|
each backtrack happens (in this example, 10 times).
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<br><b>
|
||
|
|
Recording which path was taken
|
||
|
|
</b><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
There is one verb whose main purpose is to track how a match was arrived at,
|
||
|
|
though it also has a secondary use in conjunction with advancing the match
|
||
|
|
starting point (see (*SKIP) below).
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(*MARK:NAME) or (*:NAME)
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
A name is always required with this verb. There may be as many instances of
|
||
|
|
(*MARK) as you like in a pattern, and their names do not have to be unique.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
When a match succeeds, the name of the last-encountered (*MARK) on the matching
|
||
|
|
path is passed back to the caller as described in the section entitled
|
||
|
|
<a href="pcreapi.html#extradata">"Extra data for <b>pcre_exec()</b>"</a>
|
||
|
|
in the
|
||
|
|
<a href="pcreapi.html"><b>pcreapi</b></a>
|
||
|
|
documentation. Here is an example of <b>pcretest</b> output, where the /K
|
||
|
|
modifier requests the retrieval and outputting of (*MARK) data:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
re> /X(*MARK:A)Y|X(*MARK:B)Z/K
|
||
|
|
data> XY
|
||
|
|
0: XY
|
||
|
|
MK: A
|
||
|
|
XZ
|
||
|
|
0: XZ
|
||
|
|
MK: B
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
The (*MARK) name is tagged with "MK:" in this output, and in this example it
|
||
|
|
indicates which of the two alternatives matched. This is a more efficient way
|
||
|
|
of obtaining this information than putting each alternative in its own
|
||
|
|
capturing parentheses.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
If (*MARK) is encountered in a positive assertion, its name is recorded and
|
||
|
|
passed back if it is the last-encountered. This does not happen for negative
|
||
|
|
assertions.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
After a partial match or a failed match, the name of the last encountered
|
||
|
|
(*MARK) in the entire match process is returned. For example:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
re> /X(*MARK:A)Y|X(*MARK:B)Z/K
|
||
|
|
data> XP
|
||
|
|
No match, mark = B
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
Note that in this unanchored example the mark is retained from the match
|
||
|
|
attempt that started at the letter "X" in the subject. Subsequent match
|
||
|
|
attempts starting at "P" and then with an empty string do not get as far as the
|
||
|
|
(*MARK) item, but nevertheless do not reset it.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
If you are interested in (*MARK) values after failed matches, you should
|
||
|
|
probably set the PCRE_NO_START_OPTIMIZE option
|
||
|
|
<a href="#nooptimize">(see above)</a>
|
||
|
|
to ensure that the match is always attempted.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<br><b>
|
||
|
|
Verbs that act after backtracking
|
||
|
|
</b><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
The following verbs do nothing when they are encountered. Matching continues
|
||
|
|
with what follows, but if there is no subsequent match, causing a backtrack to
|
||
|
|
the verb, a failure is forced. That is, backtracking cannot pass to the left of
|
||
|
|
the verb. However, when one of these verbs appears inside an atomic group, its
|
||
|
|
effect is confined to that group, because once the group has been matched,
|
||
|
|
there is never any backtracking into it. In this situation, backtracking can
|
||
|
|
"jump back" to the left of the entire atomic group. (Remember also, as stated
|
||
|
|
above, that this localization also applies in subroutine calls and assertions.)
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
These verbs differ in exactly what kind of failure occurs when backtracking
|
||
|
|
reaches them.
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(*COMMIT)
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
This verb, which may not be followed by a name, causes the whole match to fail
|
||
|
|
outright if the rest of the pattern does not match. Even if the pattern is
|
||
|
|
unanchored, no further attempts to find a match by advancing the starting point
|
||
|
|
take place. Once (*COMMIT) has been passed, <b>pcre_exec()</b> is committed to
|
||
|
|
finding a match at the current starting point, or not at all. For example:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
a+(*COMMIT)b
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
This matches "xxaab" but not "aacaab". It can be thought of as a kind of
|
||
|
|
dynamic anchor, or "I've started, so I must finish." The name of the most
|
||
|
|
recently passed (*MARK) in the path is passed back when (*COMMIT) forces a
|
||
|
|
match failure.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Note that (*COMMIT) at the start of a pattern is not the same as an anchor,
|
||
|
|
unless PCRE's start-of-match optimizations are turned off, as shown in this
|
||
|
|
<b>pcretest</b> example:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
re> /(*COMMIT)abc/
|
||
|
|
data> xyzabc
|
||
|
|
0: abc
|
||
|
|
xyzabc\Y
|
||
|
|
No match
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
PCRE knows that any match must start with "a", so the optimization skips along
|
||
|
|
the subject to "a" before running the first match attempt, which succeeds. When
|
||
|
|
the optimization is disabled by the \Y escape in the second subject, the match
|
||
|
|
starts at "x" and so the (*COMMIT) causes it to fail without trying any other
|
||
|
|
starting points.
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(*PRUNE) or (*PRUNE:NAME)
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
This verb causes the match to fail at the current starting position in the
|
||
|
|
subject if the rest of the pattern does not match. If the pattern is
|
||
|
|
unanchored, the normal "bumpalong" advance to the next starting character then
|
||
|
|
happens. Backtracking can occur as usual to the left of (*PRUNE), before it is
|
||
|
|
reached, or when matching to the right of (*PRUNE), but if there is no match to
|
||
|
|
the right, backtracking cannot cross (*PRUNE). In simple cases, the use of
|
||
|
|
(*PRUNE) is just an alternative to an atomic group or possessive quantifier,
|
||
|
|
but there are some uses of (*PRUNE) that cannot be expressed in any other way.
|
||
|
|
The behaviour of (*PRUNE:NAME) is the same as (*MARK:NAME)(*PRUNE). In an
|
||
|
|
anchored pattern (*PRUNE) has the same effect as (*COMMIT).
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(*SKIP)
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
This verb, when given without a name, is like (*PRUNE), except that if the
|
||
|
|
pattern is unanchored, the "bumpalong" advance is not to the next character,
|
||
|
|
but to the position in the subject where (*SKIP) was encountered. (*SKIP)
|
||
|
|
signifies that whatever text was matched leading up to it cannot be part of a
|
||
|
|
successful match. Consider:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
a+(*SKIP)b
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
If the subject is "aaaac...", after the first match attempt fails (starting at
|
||
|
|
the first character in the string), the starting point skips on to start the
|
||
|
|
next attempt at "c". Note that a possessive quantifer does not have the same
|
||
|
|
effect as this example; although it would suppress backtracking during the
|
||
|
|
first match attempt, the second attempt would start at the second character
|
||
|
|
instead of skipping on to "c".
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(*SKIP:NAME)
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
When (*SKIP) has an associated name, its behaviour is modified. If the
|
||
|
|
following pattern fails to match, the previous path through the pattern is
|
||
|
|
searched for the most recent (*MARK) that has the same name. If one is found,
|
||
|
|
the "bumpalong" advance is to the subject position that corresponds to that
|
||
|
|
(*MARK) instead of to where (*SKIP) was encountered. If no (*MARK) with a
|
||
|
|
matching name is found, the (*SKIP) is ignored.
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(*THEN) or (*THEN:NAME)
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
This verb causes a skip to the next innermost alternative if the rest of the
|
||
|
|
pattern does not match. That is, it cancels pending backtracking, but only
|
||
|
|
within the current alternative. Its name comes from the observation that it can
|
||
|
|
be used for a pattern-based if-then-else block:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
( COND1 (*THEN) FOO | COND2 (*THEN) BAR | COND3 (*THEN) BAZ ) ...
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
If the COND1 pattern matches, FOO is tried (and possibly further items after
|
||
|
|
the end of the group if FOO succeeds); on failure, the matcher skips to the
|
||
|
|
second alternative and tries COND2, without backtracking into COND1. The
|
||
|
|
behaviour of (*THEN:NAME) is exactly the same as (*MARK:NAME)(*THEN).
|
||
|
|
If (*THEN) is not inside an alternation, it acts like (*PRUNE).
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Note that a subpattern that does not contain a | character is just a part of
|
||
|
|
the enclosing alternative; it is not a nested alternation with only one
|
||
|
|
alternative. The effect of (*THEN) extends beyond such a subpattern to the
|
||
|
|
enclosing alternative. Consider this pattern, where A, B, etc. are complex
|
||
|
|
pattern fragments that do not contain any | characters at this level:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
A (B(*THEN)C) | D
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
If A and B are matched, but there is a failure in C, matching does not
|
||
|
|
backtrack into A; instead it moves to the next alternative, that is, D.
|
||
|
|
However, if the subpattern containing (*THEN) is given an alternative, it
|
||
|
|
behaves differently:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
A (B(*THEN)C | (*FAIL)) | D
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
The effect of (*THEN) is now confined to the inner subpattern. After a failure
|
||
|
|
in C, matching moves to (*FAIL), which causes the whole subpattern to fail
|
||
|
|
because there are no more alternatives to try. In this case, matching does now
|
||
|
|
backtrack into A.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Note also that a conditional subpattern is not considered as having two
|
||
|
|
alternatives, because only one is ever used. In other words, the | character in
|
||
|
|
a conditional subpattern has a different meaning. Ignoring white space,
|
||
|
|
consider:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
^.*? (?(?=a) a | b(*THEN)c )
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
If the subject is "ba", this pattern does not match. Because .*? is ungreedy,
|
||
|
|
it initially matches zero characters. The condition (?=a) then fails, the
|
||
|
|
character "b" is matched, but "c" is not. At this point, matching does not
|
||
|
|
backtrack to .*? as might perhaps be expected from the presence of the |
|
||
|
|
character. The conditional subpattern is part of the single alternative that
|
||
|
|
comprises the whole pattern, and so the match fails. (If there was a backtrack
|
||
|
|
into .*?, allowing it to match "b", the match would succeed.)
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
The verbs just described provide four different "strengths" of control when
|
||
|
|
subsequent matching fails. (*THEN) is the weakest, carrying on the match at the
|
||
|
|
next alternative. (*PRUNE) comes next, failing the match at the current
|
||
|
|
starting position, but allowing an advance to the next character (for an
|
||
|
|
unanchored pattern). (*SKIP) is similar, except that the advance may be more
|
||
|
|
than one character. (*COMMIT) is the strongest, causing the entire match to
|
||
|
|
fail.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
If more than one such verb is present in a pattern, the "strongest" one wins.
|
||
|
|
For example, consider this pattern, where A, B, etc. are complex pattern
|
||
|
|
fragments:
|
||
|
|
<pre>
|
||
|
|
(A(*COMMIT)B(*THEN)C|D)
|
||
|
|
</pre>
|
||
|
|
Once A has matched, PCRE is committed to this match, at the current starting
|
||
|
|
position. If subsequently B matches, but C does not, the normal (*THEN) action
|
||
|
|
of trying the next alternative (that is, D) does not happen because (*COMMIT)
|
||
|
|
overrides.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<br><a name="SEC27" href="#TOC1">SEE ALSO</a><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
<b>pcreapi</b>(3), <b>pcrecallout</b>(3), <b>pcrematching</b>(3),
|
||
|
|
<b>pcresyntax</b>(3), <b>pcre</b>(3), <b>pcre16(3)</b>, <b>pcre32(3)</b>.
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<br><a name="SEC28" href="#TOC1">AUTHOR</a><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Philip Hazel
|
||
|
|
<br>
|
||
|
|
University Computing Service
|
||
|
|
<br>
|
||
|
|
Cambridge CB2 3QH, England.
|
||
|
|
<br>
|
||
|
|
</P>
|
||
|
|
<br><a name="SEC29" href="#TOC1">REVISION</a><br>
|
||
|
|
<P>
|
||
|
|
Last updated: 11 November 2012
|
||
|
|
<br>
|
||
|
|
Copyright © 1997-2012 University of Cambridge.
|
||
|
|
<br>
|
||
|
|
<p>
|
||
|
|
Return to the <a href="index.html">PCRE index page</a>.
|
||
|
|
</p>
|