Xbasic
Repetition Characters in Regular Expressions
IN THIS PAGE
Description
Covers the special characters {n}, {n,}, {n,m}, ?, *, and +
Special Characters
{n}
Match n of the previous item
a{3} matches aaa
{n,}
Match n or more of the previous item
a{1,} matches aa, aaa, aaaa, etc.
{n,m}
Match at least n and at most m of the previous item
a(1,3} matches a, aa, aaa
?
Match the previous item zero or one times
a? matches nothing or a
+
Match the previous item one or more times
a+ matches a, aa, aaa, aaaa, etc.
*
Match the previous item zero or more times
a* matches nothing, a, aa, aaa, aaaa, etc.
Examples
This example looks for a telephone number. The area code must be enclosed in parentheses and there also must be a hyphen.
? regex_split("Our phone number is (781)229-4500.", "(\(\d{3}\)\d{3}-\d{4})") = "(781)229-4500"
This example looks for the area code telephone number.
? regex_split("Our phone number is (781)229-4500.", "(\(\w{3}\))") = "(781)"
This example looks for value of a dollar amount.
? regex_split("the price is $123456.78.", "(\d+.\d+)") = "123456.78"
See Also