EXAKT

Regular

Expressions
Content
Regular

Expressions
Examples
Metasymbolsandsyntax
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Regular

Expressions
Patternsfor

describing

sets

ofsymbol

strings

with

the

help

ofmeta

symbols

andapredefined

syntax
Purpose:findstrings

inlargerstrings

/texts
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Examples
Thewordsthis,that,those

andthese

andtheircapitalized

variants
[Tt]h(is|at|ose|ese)
Wordsstartingwithin

andendinginable

orably

(e.g.

indisputable,indescribably,ineffable,indistinguishable

etc.)
\bin[a-z]+abl[ey]\b
Allsequencesofthreewordsfollowedbyaquestion

mark,i.e.thelastthreewordsofquestions
(\b[A-Za-z]+\b){3,3}\?
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Metasymbols

andsyntax
Symbolsandsymbol

classes:
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a
matches

the

symbol

a(case

sensitive!)
.
matches

any

symbol
[ui]
symbol

class,matches

u

or

i
[^AaEeIiOoUu]
negated

symbol

class,matches

allsymbols

except

vowels
[A-Ka-k] [0-5]
Range

ofsymbols
Examples:
B[ui]rma matches Burma and Birma
M[ae][iy]er matches Maier, Mayer, Meyer, Meier,
Metasymbols

andsyntax
Predefined

symbol

classes

(selection):
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\d
adigit
\D
anondigit
\w
analphabetic

symbol
\W
anonalphabetic

symbol
\s
whitespace
\S
nonwhitespace
Important!!!
\w matches letters of the English alphabet, no extensios of the Latin
alphabet
Instead: [A-Za-z] for the German alphabet
Metasymbols

andsyntax
Quantifiers:
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?
once

or

not

atall
*
zero

or

more

times
+
once

or

more

times
{n}
ntimes
{min,max}
atleastmin

times,atmost

max

times
Examples:
[A-K]\w+ matches words with capital initial A-K
\d{1,2}\.\d{1,2}\.\d{2,4}

matches dates (14.11.1971)
Metasymbols

andsyntax
Other

metasymbols

(selection):
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|
alternative(OR)
(|)
groups

expressions
\b
matches

aword

boundary
\
escape

(literal

interpretation)
Beispiele:
\. matches a period
[Dd](er|ie|as) matches German definite articles
[a-z0-9-_\.]+@[a-z0-9-_\.]+\.\w{2,3} matches email adresses