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Regular Expression Utilities

The script system\packages\regex\regbuild.ijs contains definitions to for building regular expression patterns.

Many of the verbs below may enclose its argument in parentheses (to make it a subexpression). For example,
anyof 'abc' returns '(abc)*'.

The argument is only put in parentheses if necessary.
anyof set 'abc' is '[abc]*'.

The following verbs correspond directly to a feature of the regular expression notation:

set chars
returns set construction for chars
   set 'abc'
[abc]
not chars
set of non-matching chars
   set not 'abc'
[^abc]
sub pat
make a subexpression
   set 'abc'
(abc)
someof pat
pattern matching 1 or more pat
   someof 'abc'
(abc)+
(min,max) of pat
pattern matchin min up to max of pat
   2 4 of 'abc'
(abc){2,4}
pat1 or pat2 
pattern matching either pat1 or pat2
   'abc' or 'd'
abc|x
pat1 or pat2 
pattern matching pat1 immediately followed by pat2
   'action=' by 'move' or 'copy'
action=(move|copy)
sub pat
makes pat a subexpression
   sub 'abc'
(abc)
bkref refnum
back-reference to a previous subexpression
   bkref 1
\1

Some nouns can be used as parts of regular expressions:

white
pattern matching one or more whitespace characters
owhite
pattern matching optional whitespace
sol
pattern matching the start of a line
eol
pattern matching the end of a line
any
pattern matching any character

Finally, some miscellaneous verbs
plain text
returns a regular expression matching the plain text
   plain 'dir j.*'
dir j\.\*
pat1 between y
result is elements of y catenated together with pat1 between each
   ' *' between 'abc'
a *b *c
   ' *' between 'p1';'p2';'p3|p4'
p1 *p2 *(p3|p4)
comment nb pattern
add comment to pattern

Interpretation of a pattern always stops at the first null character (0{a.). The nb verb makes use of this by catenating a null character and comment at the end of a pattern.

   p=. rxcomp 'some digits' nb '[[:digit:]]+'
   rxinfo p
+-+----------------------------+
|1|[[:digit:]]+ NB. some digits|
+-+----------------------------+
setchars setpat
returns list of characters matching a set pattern
   setchars '[a-d[:digit:]]'
0123456789abcd

Character classes

The following nouns are strings which are used within sets to specify a character class:

   alnum, alpha, blank, cntrl, digit, graph,
   lower, print, punct, space, upper, xdigit

For example,

   alpha=. '[:alpha:]'

Corresponding nouns, named with a leading uppercase, are patterns specifying a set of the character class, for example,

   Alpha=. '[[:alpha:]]'    NB.  (same as    set alpha)

J patterns

The following nouns, defined in packages\regex\regj.ijs , are patterns which match elements of J code:

Jname

matches a J name

Jnumitem, Jnum

matches a J numeric item or array (constant)

Jchar

matches a J character string

Jconst

matches a J numeric or character constant, include a. and a:

Jgassign, Jlassign, Jassign

matches J global, local, or either assignment

Jlpar, Jrpar

match J's left and right parentheses

Jsol, Jeol

match the start or end of a J sentence
(ignores leading blanks and trailing blanks/comments)


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