Specifications

CHAPTER 24 DataWindow Expression and InfoMaker Functions
Users Guide 703
The following tables explain the meaning and use of these metacharacters:
The metacharacters asterisk (*), plus (+), and question mark (?) are unary
operators that are used to specify repetitions in a regular expression:
Metacharacter Meaning Example
Caret (^) Matches the beginning of
a string
^C matches C at the
beginning of a string.
Dollar sign ($) Matches the end of a
string
s$ matches s at the end of a
string.
Period (.) Matches any character . . . matches three
consecutive characters.
Backslash (\) Removes the following
metacharacter’s special
characteristics so that it
matches itself
\$ matches $.
Character class (a group
of characters enclosed in
square brackets [ ])
Matches any of the
enclosed characters
[AEIOU] matches A, E, I, O,
or U.
You can use hyphens to
abbreviate ranges of
characters in a character
class. For example, [A-Za-z]
matches any letter.
Complemented character
class (first character
inside the square
brackets is a caret)
Matches any character
not in the group
following the caret
[^0-9] matches any character
except a digit, and [^A-Za-z]
matches any character
except a letter.
Metacharacter Meaning Example
* (asterisk) Indicates zero or more
occurrences
A* matches zero or more As
(no As, A, AA, AAA, and so
on)
+ (plus) Indicates one or more
occurrences
A+ matches one A or more
than one A (A, AAA, and so
on)
? (question mark) Indicates zero or one
occurrence
A? matches an empty string
(“”) or A