regexp(3,n)(n) Tcl Built-In Commands regexp(3,n)(n) NAME regexp(3,n) - Match a regular expression against a string(3,n) SYNOPSIS regexp(3,n) ?switches? exp string(3,n) ?matchVar? ?subMatchVar subMatchVar ...? DESCRIPTION Determines whether the regular expression exp matches part or all of string(3,n) and returns 1 if(3,n) it does, 0 if(3,n) it doesn't, unless -inline is specified (see below). (Regular expression matching is described in(1,8) the re_syntax reference page.) If additional arguments are specified after string(3,n) then they are treated as the names of variables in(1,8) which to return information about which part(s) of string(3,n) matched exp. MatchVar will be set(7,n,1 builtins) to the range of string(3,n) that matched all of exp. The first subMatchVar will contain the characters in(1,8) string(3,n) that matched the leftmost parenthesized subex- pression within exp, the next subMatchVar will contain the characters that matched the next parenthesized subexpression to the right in(1,8) exp, and so on. If the initial arguments to regexp(3,n) start with - then they are treated as switches. The following switches are currently supported: -about Instead of attempting to match the regular expression, returns a list containing information about the regular expression. The first element of the list is a subex- pression count. The second element is a list of prop- erty names that describe various attributes of the regu- lar expression. This switch(1,n) is primarily intended for debugging purposes. -expanded Enables use of the expanded regular expression syntax where whitespace and comments are ignored. This is the same as specifying the (?x) embedded option (see the re_syntax manual page). -indices Changes what is stored in(1,8) the subMatchVars. Instead of storing the matching characters from string(3,n), each vari- able will contain a list of two decimal strings giving the indices in(1,8) string(3,n) of the first and last characters in(1,8) the matching range of characters. -line Enables newline-sensitive matching. By default, newline is a completely ordinary character with no special mean- ing. With this flag, `[^' bracket expressions and `.' never match newline, `^' matches an empty string(3,n) after any newline in(1,8) addition to its normal function, and `$' matches an empty string(3,n) before any newline in(1,8) addition to its normal function. This flag is equivalent to specifying both -linestop and -lineanchor, or the (?n) embedded option (see the re_syntax manual page). -linestop Changes the behavior of `[^' bracket expressions and `.' so that they stop at newlines. This is the same as specifying the (?p) embedded option (see the re_syntax manual page). -lineanchor Changes the behavior of `^' and `$' (the ``anchors'') so they match the beginning and end of a line respectively. This is the same as specifying the (?w) embedded option (see the re_syntax manual page). -nocase Causes upper-case characters in(1,8) string(3,n) to be treated as lower case during the matching process. -all Causes the regular expression to be matched as many times as possible in(1,8) the string(3,n), returning the total number of matches found. If this is specified with match variables, they will contain information for the last match only. -inline Causes the command to return, as a list, the data that would otherwise be placed in(1,8) match variables. When using -inline, match variables may not be specified. If used with -all, the list will be concatenated at each iteration, such that a flat list is always returned. For each match iteration, the command will append the overall match data, plus one element for each subexpres- sion in(1,8) the regular expression. Examples are: regexp(3,n) -inline -- {\w(\w)} " inlined " => {in(1,8) n} regexp(3,n) -all -inline -- {\w(\w)} " inlined " => {in(1,8) n li i ne e} -start index Specifies a character index offset into the string(3,n) to start matching the regular expression at. When using this switch(1,n), `^' will not match the beginning of the line, and \A will still match the start of the string(3,n) at index. If -indices is specified, the indices will be indexed starting from the absolute beginning of the input string. index will be constrained to the bounds of the input string. -- Marks the end of switches. The argument following this one will be treated as exp even if(3,n) it starts with a -. If there are more subMatchVar's than parenthesized subexpressions within exp, or if(3,n) a particular subexpression in(1,8) exp doesn't match the string(3,n) (e.g. because it was in(1,8) a portion of the expression that wasn't matched), then the corresponding subMatchVar will be set(7,n,1 builtins) to ``-1 -1'' if(3,n) -indices has been specified or to an empty string(3,n) otherwise. SEE ALSO re_syntax(n), regsub(n) KEYWORDS match, regular expression, string(3,n) Tcl 8.3 regexp(3,n)(n)