| Character
| Name
| Example and Meaning
|
| ^
| Left Anchor
|
- ^mentor
- Find all instances of "mentor" that occur at the beginning
of a text unit.
|
| $
| Right Anchor
|
- $mentor
- Find all instances of "mentor" that are found at the
end of a text unit.
|
| []
| Alternation
start and end
|
- ment[ee|or|ored|oring|orship]
- Square brackets are used to enclose aternate expressions.
The above example would find all occurrences of mentee, mentor, mentored,
mentoring and mentorship.
|
| |
| String
alternation
divider
|
- [Sue|Susan|Susie]
- The divider separates different iterations of a word.
The example above would find all occurrences of Sue, Susan, or Susie.
|
| -
| Character
range
alternation
|
- [1-9]
- Finds a match for the occurrence of any single digit
between 1 and 9.
- [Lauren|1-9]
- Matches 'Lauren' OR any digit.
|
| ~
| Negated
character
alternation
|
- When used as the first character searches for a
match with any character other than those specified.
- [~AEIOUaeiou]
- Matches any character except a vowel.
- [~0-9]
- Matches any character except a digit.
- [Lauren|~AEIOUaeiou]
- Finds matches for "Lauren" or any character that isn't
a vowel.
|
|
.
(period)
| Spanning
Wild-card
|
- l.ve
- Will find live and love. The period (or dot) matches
any one character.
- f..t
- Will find foot, feet, fist, felt, fast, feat, etc.
Finds any two characters preceded by 'f' and followed by 't'.
|
| #
| Repetition
Wild Card Zero or ONE
|
- Matches the preceding character one or zero times.
- colou#r
- Finds all occurrences of color and colour by allowing
the preceding character or grouping to match or be ignored (match
0 or 1 times).
- Mr*s.
- Finds Ms. or Mrs.
- [Ms|Miss|Mrs]#Lauren
- Finds any of the salutations followed by Lauren
|
| *
| Repetition
Wild Card Zero or MORE
|
- Matches the preceding character many or zero times.
- $20*
- Matches $2, $20, $200, $2000, etc. Finds '2' followed
by zero or more occurences of '0'.
- 61*
- Matches '6' followed by zero or more occurrences
of '1'
- an*
- Matches 'a' followed by zero or more occurences
of 'n'
- timelines*
- Matches 'timeline' followed by zero or more occurences
of 's'
|
| +
| Repetition
Wild Card One or MORE
|
- Matches the preceding character, or range of characters,
one or more times.
- $20+bill
- Matches '$20 bill', '$200 bill', '$2000 bill', etc.
Finds '2' followed by one or more occurences of '0'. Will not match
'$2 bill'.
- $[0-9]+bill
- Finds '$', followed by any sequence of numbers,
followed by 'bill'.
|
| ()
|
Grouping
Start and End
|
- Used to frame a 'grouping' - a pattern or string
- for use with a Repitition Wild Card. The wild card then applies
to the whole pattern or string rather than a single character.
|
| \
| Escape
|
When placed in front of a special character in a pattern,
the special character is treated literally; otherwise it is ignored.
|
^n.*n[n|n]
(where 'n' equals a text pattern)
| Combinations
of
Characters
|
- ^Dorothy:.*I [wish|want|think]
- Finds a left anchored pattern beginning with 'Dorothy:'
followed by any sequence of zero or more characters - followed by
'I' - followed by 'wish' or 'want' or 'think'
|
