Pattern (regular expression) matching

Author(s): The CLIP Group.

Version: 1.10#7 (2006/4/26, 19:22:13 CEST)

Version of last change: 1.9#255 (2003/12/30, 23:32:38 CET)

This library provides facilities for matching strings and terms against patterns (i.e., regular expressions).

• Usage and interface (patterns)
• Documentation on exports (patterns)

Usage and interface (patterns)

Documentation on exports (patterns)

PREDICATE: match_pattern/2:

Usage: match_pattern(Pattern, String)

• Description: Matches String against Pattern. For example, match_pattern("*.pl","foo.pl") succeeds.
• The following properties should hold at call time: Pattern is a pattern to match against. (patterns:pattern/1) String is a string (a list of character codes). (basic_props:string/1)

PREDICATE: match_pattern/3:

Usage: match_pattern(Pattern, String, Tail)

• Description: Matches String against Pattern. Tail is the remainder of the string after the match. For example, match_pattern("??*","foo.pl",Tail) succeeds, instantiating Tail to "o.pl".
• The following properties should hold at call time: Pattern is a pattern to match against. (patterns:pattern/1) String is a string (a list of character codes). (basic_props:string/1) Tail is a string (a list of character codes). (basic_props:string/1)

PREDICATE: case_insensitive_match/2:

Usage: case_insensitive_match(Pred1, Pred2)

• Description: Tests if two predicates Pred1 and Pred2 match in a case-insensitive way.

PREDICATE: letter_match/2:

Usage: letter_match(X, Y)

• Description: True iff X and Y represents the same letter

REGTYPE: pattern/1:

Special characters for Pattern are:

*

Matches any string, including the null string.

?

Matches any single character.

[...]

Matches any one of the enclosed characters. A pair of characters separated by a minus sign denotes a range; any character lexically between those two characters, inclusive, is matched. If the first character following the [ is a ^ then any character not enclosed is matched. No other character is special inside this construct. To include a ] in a character set, you must make it the first character. To include a `-', you must use it in a context where it cannot possibly indicate a range: that is, as the first character, or immediately after a range.

|

Specifies an alternative. Two patterns A and B with | in between form an expression that matches anything that either A or B will match.

{...}

Groups alternatives inside larger patterns.

\

Quotes a special character (including itself).

Usage: pattern(P)

• Description: P is a pattern to match against.

PREDICATE: match_pattern_pred/2:

Usage: match_pattern_pred(Pred1, Pred2)

• Description: Tests if two predicates Pred1 and Pred2 match using regular expressions.

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