Match (Regex function)

Position after match of regex (Regex class)

This function tests a Unicode or EBCDIC string against the regular expression in the Regex object. It can also return the contents of capturing groups to a Stringlist. It provides similar functionality to RegexMatch, UnicodeRegexMatch, and RegexCapture.

Syntax

%number = regex:Match( string, [Start= number], [Capture= stringlist])

Syntax terms

%number	The position in the string after the match. If the string does not match the regular expression, 0 is returned. If the regular expressions matches up to the end of the string, the lenght of the string plus one is returned.
regex	The Regex object
string	The Unicode or EBCDIC string to test against the Regex object.
Start	number The starting position. This value must be between 1 and the length of string plus 1. The default value is 1, which means to start at the beginning of the string.
Capture	A Stringlist object that is to receive the capturing group contents if there is a match. Each added item represents a capturing group's value with items added in capturing group order.

Usage notes

• There is no Capture method for the Regex class since Match provides capture functionality.
• An advantage of this method over the String RegexMatch method is that this method has a start position parameter.

Examples

The following illustrates how a loop can find all occurrences of a particular pattern in a string and to add those occurrences to a Stringlist:

%pos is float %matches is object stringlist %regex is object regex %str is longstring ... %regex = new("(<[^>]+>)") %pos = 1 %matches = new repeat while %pos %pos = %regex:match(%str, start=%pos, capture=%matches) end repeat

Note that no special check is required for a zero-length string – 1 is a valid start position for a zero-length string and the first Match call for a zero length string will always return 0 in this case.

See also

Regex class	List of Regex methods	Regex methods syntax
Notation conventions for methods