Basics Miscellaneous

Regular Expressions Scripting and Computer Environment - Lecture 3

Saurabh Barjatiya
International Institute Of Information Technology, Hyderabad

26 July, 2011

Saurabh Barjatiya

Regular Expressions Scripting and Computer Environment - Lecture 3

IIIT Hyderabad

Basics Miscellaneous

Matching single character Using special characters Repetition match

Contents

Basics Matching single character Using special characters Repetition match Miscellaneous OR of regular expressions Backreference

Saurabh Barjatiya

Regular Expressions Scripting and Computer Environment - Lecture 3

IIIT Hyderabad

Basics Miscellaneous

Matching single character Using special characters Repetition match

Sample text le
For all future examples following will be contents of sample text le (say test.txt) Contents ABCD XYZ xyz abcd 340 6$ there are two elfs in this room there are two shelves in this room 341 + 24 = 356 !@#$%
Saurabh Barjatiya Regular Expressions Scripting and Computer Environment - Lecture 3 IIIT Hyderabad

Basics Miscellaneous

Matching single character Using special characters Repetition match

Matching single character - 01

All alphabets and numbers match themselves. Hence nothing fancy is required to match simple words or numbers. Example 1 - Matching alphabets and numbers Command: grep this test.txt Output: there are two elfs in this room there are two shelves in this room

Saurabh Barjatiya

Regular Expressions Scripting and Computer Environment - Lecture 3

IIIT Hyderabad

Basics Miscellaneous

Matching single character Using special characters Repetition match

Matching single character - 02

Following characters are treated dierently when used in regular expressions: Plus (+) Pipe (|) Brackets ({}[]()) Dot (.) Question mark (?) Caret (^) Dollar ($) Backslash (\)

Saurabh Barjatiya

Regular Expressions Scripting and Computer Environment - Lecture 3

IIIT Hyderabad

Basics Miscellaneous

Matching single character Using special characters Repetition match

Matching single character - 03

Special characters can be escaped using backslash (\) so that they match themselves and do not have any special signicance. Example 2 - Matching special characters Command: grep \$ test.txt Output: 6$ !@#$%

Saurabh Barjatiya

Regular Expressions Scripting and Computer Environment - Lecture 3

IIIT Hyderabad

Basics Miscellaneous

Matching single character Using special characters Repetition match

Using special characters - Brackets - 01

Square brackets ([]) are used to specify range / set of characters that can be matched. Example 3 - Matching set of characters Command: grep [iou] test.txt Output: abcd there are two elfs in this room there are two shelves in this room

Saurabh Barjatiya

Regular Expressions Scripting and Computer Environment - Lecture 3

IIIT Hyderabad

Basics Miscellaneous

Matching single character Using special characters Repetition match

Using special characters - Brackets - 02

Example 4 - Matching range of characters Command: grep [0-9] test.txt Output: 340 6$ 341 + 24 = 356

Saurabh Barjatiya

Regular Expressions Scripting and Computer Environment - Lecture 3

IIIT Hyderabad

Basics Miscellaneous

Matching single character Using special characters Repetition match

Using special characters - Brackets - 03

[a-z] Any small alphabet between a and z (both inclusive) [A-Z] Any capital alphabet between A and Z (both inclusive) [a-Z] Any alphabet capital or small [A-z] Wont match with anything, not even capital A or small z Note that above description is based on grep behavior. Other regular expression matching programs or libraries can interpret the same sequences dierently. Hence it is best to test regular expression when using new library / application or use long form like [abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz] to ensure that regular expression is portable.
Saurabh Barjatiya Regular Expressions Scripting and Computer Environment - Lecture 3 IIIT Hyderabad

Basics Miscellaneous

Matching single character Using special characters Repetition match

Using special characters - Brackets - 04

Following and many other named classes can be used within square brackets ([]): [:alpha:] Any alphabet small or capital [:alnum:] Any alphabet or number [:digit:] Any digit [:lower:] Any lower case letter [:upper:] Any upper case letter [:space:] Whitespace Usage of named classes Command: grep [[:alpha:]] test.txt The symbol \w is a synonym for [[:alnum:]]
Saurabh Barjatiya Regular Expressions Scripting and Computer Environment - Lecture 3 IIIT Hyderabad

Basics Miscellaneous

Matching single character Using special characters Repetition match

Using special characters - Brackets - 05

If square brackets range begins with caret (^) then it negates the range and all characters which are not specied within square brackets get matched. Example 05 - Negation of range with square brackets Command: grep [^[:alpha:] ] test.txt Output: 340 6$ there are two elfs in this room 341 + 24 = 356 !@#$% The symbol \W is a synonym for [^[:alnum:]]
Saurabh Barjatiya Regular Expressions Scripting and Computer Environment - Lecture 3 IIIT Hyderabad

Basics Miscellaneous

Matching single character Using special characters Repetition match

Using special characters - Description

Period (.) Matches any single character Caret (^) Matches empty character at start of line Dollar ($) Matches empty character at end of line (\<) Matches empty character at beginning of word (\>) Matches empty character at end of word (\b) Matches empty character at edge of word

Saurabh Barjatiya

Regular Expressions Scripting and Computer Environment - Lecture 3

IIIT Hyderabad

Basics Miscellaneous

Matching single character Using special characters Repetition match

Using special characters - Period

Example 06 - Usage of period Command: grep 6. test.txt Output: 6$

Saurabh Barjatiya

Regular Expressions Scripting and Computer Environment - Lecture 3

IIIT Hyderabad

Basics Miscellaneous

Matching single character Using special characters Repetition match

Using special characters - Caret

Example 07 - Usage of caret Command: grep ^a test.txt Output: abcd

Saurabh Barjatiya

Regular Expressions Scripting and Computer Environment - Lecture 3

IIIT Hyderabad

Basics Miscellaneous

Matching single character Using special characters Repetition match

Using special characters - Dollar

Example 08 - Usage of dollar Command: grep 6$ test.txt Output: 341 + 24 = 356

Saurabh Barjatiya

Regular Expressions Scripting and Computer Environment - Lecture 3

IIIT Hyderabad

Basics Miscellaneous

Matching single character Using special characters Repetition match

Using special characters - \<

Example 09 - Usage of \< Command: grep \<s test.txt Output: there are two elfs in this room there are two shelves in this room

Saurabh Barjatiya

Regular Expressions Scripting and Computer Environment - Lecture 3

IIIT Hyderabad

Basics Miscellaneous

Matching single character Using special characters Repetition match

Using special characters - \>

Example 10 - Usage of \> Command: grep s\> test.txt Output: there are two elfs in this room there are two shelves in this room

Saurabh Barjatiya

Regular Expressions Scripting and Computer Environment - Lecture 3

IIIT Hyderabad

Basics Miscellaneous

Matching single character Using special characters Repetition match

Using special characters - \b

Example 11 - Usage of \b Command: grep \b3 test.txt Output: 340 341 + 24 = 356

Saurabh Barjatiya

Regular Expressions Scripting and Computer Environment - Lecture 3

IIIT Hyderabad

Basics Miscellaneous

Matching single character Using special characters Repetition match

Repetition match - Description

? The preceding item is optional and matched at most once. * The preceding item will be matched zero or more times. + The preceding item will be matched one or more times. {n} The preceding item is matched exactly n times. {n,} The preceding item is matched n or more times. {n,m} The preceding item is matched at least n times, but not more than m times.

Saurabh Barjatiya

Regular Expressions Scripting and Computer Environment - Lecture 3

IIIT Hyderabad

Basics Miscellaneous

Matching single character Using special characters Repetition match

Repetition match examples

Example 12 - Usage of ? Command: grep -o \<t...\?\> test.txt Output: two this two this

Saurabh Barjatiya

Regular Expressions Scripting and Computer Environment - Lecture 3

IIIT Hyderabad

Basics Miscellaneous

Matching single character Using special characters Repetition match

Repetition match examples

Example 13 - Usage of * Command: grep -o b.* test.txt Output: bcd

Saurabh Barjatiya

Regular Expressions Scripting and Computer Environment - Lecture 3

IIIT Hyderabad

Basics Miscellaneous

Matching single character Using special characters Repetition match

Repetition match examples

Example 14 - Usage of + Command: grep -o th[a-z]\+ test.txt Output: there this there this

Saurabh Barjatiya

Regular Expressions Scripting and Computer Environment - Lecture 3

IIIT Hyderabad

Basics Miscellaneous

Matching single character Using special characters Repetition match

Repetition match examples

Example 15 - Usage of {} Commands: grep -o ro\{2\}m test.txt grep -o ro\{1,\}m test.txt grep -o ro\{1,2\}m test.txt Output: room room

Saurabh Barjatiya

Regular Expressions Scripting and Computer Environment - Lecture 3

IIIT Hyderabad

Basics Miscellaneous

OR of regular expressions Backreference

Contents

Basics Matching single character Using special characters Repetition match Miscellaneous OR of regular expressions Backreference

Saurabh Barjatiya

Regular Expressions Scripting and Computer Environment - Lecture 3

IIIT Hyderabad

Basics Miscellaneous

OR of regular expressions Backreference

OR of regular expressions
AND on regular expressions can be performed by just concatenating two regular expressions. For OR of regular expressions | operator can be used. Example 16 - Usage of | Commands: grep -o s[a-z]\+\|[a-z]\+s test.txt Output: this shelves this

Saurabh Barjatiya

Regular Expressions Scripting and Computer Environment - Lecture 3

IIIT Hyderabad

Basics Miscellaneous

OR of regular expressions Backreference

Backreference

Backreferences can be used to refer to matched regular expression when using regular expressions for search and replace operations. Example 17 - Usage of backreference Commands: sed s/\<i\([a-z]\+\)\>/I\1/g test.txt | grep I Output: there are two elfs In this room there are two shelves In this room

Saurabh Barjatiya

Regular Expressions Scripting and Computer Environment - Lecture 3

IIIT Hyderabad