User Manual

4.12 About Regular Expressions 85
Menu item Operator Description
Any character . Symbolizes any character
Character in range [ ] A bracketed text is treated
as a single character, for
example: [AEW13] means
A or E or W or 1 or 3. A
hyphen within the brackets
specifies a range of
characters. For example,
[F-I] means F or G or H or I,
and [A-Z0-9] matches all
letters and all digits.
Character not in range [
∧
] A circumflex located at the
first position in a bracket is
a complement operator. In
other words, all characters
match except those
included in the bracket.
Example: [
∧
E] means any
character except E.
Slash / A slash before a character
means that this character is
to be treated literally, not as
an operator.
0 or 1 match (1 if possible) ? Matches 0 or 1 time the
preceding expression. 1
repeat if possible is
grabbed, then the rest of
the regular expression
continues to be evaluated.
0 or 1 match (0 if possible) ?? Matches 0 or 1 time the
preceding expression. 0
repeat if possible (the
NEXT step in the regular
expression is also
evaluated and has priority).
0 or more matches (as
many as possible)
∗ Matches 0 or more times
the preceding expression.
As many repeats as
possible are grabbed, then
the rest of the regular
expression continues to be
evaluated.
0 or more matches (as few
as possible)
∗? Matches 0 or more times
the preceding expression.
As few repeats as possible
are grabbed (the NEXT
step in the regular
expression is also
evaluated and has priority).
1 or more matches (as
many as possible)
+ Matches 1 or more times
the preceding expression.
As many repeats as
possible are grabbed, then
the rest of the regular
expression continues to be
evaluated.
1 or more matches (as few
as possible)
+? Matches 1 or more times
the preceding expression.
As few repeats as possible
are grabbed (the next step
in the regular expression is
also evaluated and has
priority).
Or | OR operator. Use this to
separate two expressions
and to match expression
#1 or expression #2. E.g.
Piano|Drum matches all
texts that contain Piano or
Drum.
Not ! Negation (NOT) operator:
the expression following !
must not match the
browsed text. For example,
a!b matches any "a" not
followed by "b".
Generic Group () Grouping operator. Useful
to form a sub-expression.
This sub-expression can be
followed by one of the
repeat operators.
Capture {} Capture operator. By
default, the found text
corresponds to the entire
regular expression. But it is
possible to limit a part of
the regular expression with
{ }, and if a part is
matched, this will be the
retained part. For instance
the regular expression
"ab{cd}ef" that is applied
on "abcdef" will return "cd".
Beginning of text
∧
Use the circumflex sign to
specify that the
sought-after text MUST be
located at the start of the
browsed text. Any match
not located at the start of
the browsed text is ignored.
End of text Put this sign to specify that
the sought-after text MUST
be located at the end of the
text. Any match not located
at the end of the text is
ignored.
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