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SciTE Regular Expressions
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Regular Expressions</font></a>
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<h2>
Regular Expressions in SciTE
</h2>
<h3>Purpose</h3>
<p>
Regular expressions can be used for searching for patterns
rather than literals. For example, it is possible to
search for variables in SciTE property files,
which look like $(name) with the regular expression:<br />
\$([a-z.]+)
</p>
<p>
Replacement with regular expressions allows complex
transformations with the use of tagged expressions.
For example, pairs of numbers separated by a ',' could
be reordered by replacing the regular expression:<br />
\([0-9]+\),\([0-9]+\)<br />
with:<br />
\2,\1
</p>
<h3>Syntax</h3>
<p>
<ol>
<li>
char matches itself, unless it is a special character
(metachar): . \ [ ] * + ^ $
</li><li>
. matches any character.
</li><li>
\ matches the character following it, except
when followed by a left or right round bracket,
a digit 1 to 9 or a left or right angle bracket.
(see [7], [8] and [9])
It is used as an escape character for all
other meta-characters, and itself. When used
in a set ([4]), it is treated as an ordinary
character.
</li><li>
[set] matches one of the characters in the set.
If the first character in the set is "^",
it matches a character NOT in the set, i.e.
complements the set. A shorthand S-E is
used to specify a set of characters S up to
E, inclusive. The special characters "]" and
"-" have no special meaning if they appear
as the first chars in the set.
examples: match:
[a-z] any lowercase alpha
[^]-] any char except ] and -
[^A-Z] any char except uppercase
alpha
[a-zA-Z] any alpha
</li><li>
* any regular expression form [1] to [4], followed by
closure char (*) matches zero or more matches of
that form.
</li><li>
+ same as [5], except it matches one or more.
</li><li>
a regular expression in the form [1] to [10], enclosed
as \(form\) matches what form matches. The enclosure
creates a set of tags, used for [8] and for
pattern substitution. The tagged forms are numbered
starting from 1.
</li><li>
a \ followed by a digit 1 to 9 matches whatever a
previously tagged regular expression ([7]) matched.
</li><li>
\< a regular expression starting with a \< construct
\> and/or ending with a \> construct, restricts the
pattern matching to the beginning of a word, and/or
the end of a word. A word is defined to be a character
string beginning and/or ending with the characters
A-Z a-z 0-9 and _. It must also be preceded and/or
followed by any character outside those mentioned.
</li><li>
a composite regular expression xy where x and y
are in the form [1] to [10] matches the longest
match of x followed by a match for y.
</li><li>
^ a regular expression starting with a ^ character
$ and/or ending with a $ character, restricts the
pattern matching to the beginning of the line,
or the end of line. [anchors] Elsewhere in the
pattern, ^ and $ are treated as ordinary characters.
</li>
</ol>
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<h3>Acknowledgments</h3>
<p>
Most of this documentation was originally written by Ozan S. Yigit.<br />
Additions by Neil Hodgson.<br />
All of this document is in the public domain.
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