VBS Tutorial: regular expression syntax

VBS Tutorial: regular expression syntax

Regular expression syntax

A regular expression is a text mode consisting of common characters (such as characters a to z) and special characters (such as metacharacters. This mode describes one or more strings to be matched when searching the text subject. A regular expression is used as a template to match a character pattern with the searched string.

Here are some examples of regular expressions that may be encountered:

Visual Basic Scripting Edition	VBScript	Match
/^ \ [\ T] * $/	"^ \ [\ T] * $"	Matches a blank row.
/\ D {2}-\ d {5 }/	"\ D {2}-\ d {5 }"	Verify that an ID number consists of a 2-digit, a hyphen, and a 5-digit number.
/<(. *)>. * <\/\ 1>/	"<(. *)>. * <\/\ 1>"	Matches an HTML Tag.

The following table shows a complete list of metacharacters and their behaviors in the context of a regular expression:

Character	Description
\	Mark the next character as a special character, a literal character, a back reference, or an octal escape character. For example, 'n' matches the character "n ". '\ N' matches a line break. The sequence '\' matches "\" and "\ (" matches "(".
^	Matches the start position of the input string. If the Multiline attribute of the RegExp object is set, ^ matches the position after '\ n' or' \ R.
$	Matches the end position of the input string. If the Multiline attribute of the RegExp object is set, $ also matches the position before '\ n' or' \ R.
*	Matches the previous subexpression zero or multiple times. For example, zo * can match "z" and "zoo ". * Is equivalent to {0 ,}.
+	Match the previous subexpression once or multiple times. For example, 'Zo + 'can match "zo" and "zoo", but cannot match "z ". + Is equivalent to {1 ,}.
?	Match the previous subexpression zero or once. For example, "do (es )? "Can match" do "in" do "or" does ".? It is equivalent to {0, 1 }.
{N}	N is a non-negative integer. Match n times. For example, 'O {2} 'cannot match 'O' in "Bob", but can match two o in "food.
{N ,}	N is a non-negative integer. Match at least n times. For example, 'O {2,} 'cannot match 'O' in "Bob", but can match all o in "foooood. 'O {1,} 'is equivalent to 'o + '. 'O {0,} 'is equivalent to 'o *'.
{N, m}	Both m and n are non-negative integers, where n <= m. Match at least n times and at most m times. Liu, "o {1, 3}" will match the first three o in "fooooood. 'O {0, 1} 'is equivalent to 'o? '. Note that there must be no space between a comma and two numbers.
?	When this character is followed by any other delimiter (*, + ,?, The matching mode after {n}, {n ,}, {n, m}) is not greedy. The non-Greedy mode matches as few searched strings as possible, while the default greedy mode matches as many searched strings as possible. For example, for strings "oooo", 'O ++? 'Will match a single "o", and 'O +' will match all 'O '.
.	Matches any single character except "\ n. To match any character including '\ n', use a pattern like' [. \ n.
(Pattern)	Match pattern and obtain this match. The obtained match can be obtained from the generated Matches set. The SubMatches set is used in VBScript, and $0… is used in Visual Basic Scripting Edition... $9 attribute. To match the parentheses, use '\ (' or '\)'.
(? : Pattern)	Matches pattern but does not get the matching result. That is to say, this is a non-get match and is not stored for future use. This is useful when you use the "or" character (|) to combine each part of a pattern. For example, 'industr (? : Y | ies) is a simpler expression than 'industry | industries.
(? = Pattern)	Forward pre-query: matches the search string at the beginning of any string that matches the pattern. This is a non-get match, that is, the match does not need to be obtained for future use. For example, 'windows (? = 95 | 98 | NT | 2000) 'can match "Windows" in "Windows 2000", but cannot match "Windows" in "Windows 3.1 ". Pre-query does not consume characters, that is, after a match occurs, the next matching search starts immediately after the last match, instead of starting after the pre-query characters.
(?! Pattern)	Negative pre-query: match the search string at the start of any string that does not match Negative lookahead matches the search string at any point where a string not matching pattern. This is a non-get match, that is, the match does not need to be obtained for future use. For example, 'windows (?! 95 | 98 | NT | 2000) 'can match "Windows" in "Windows 3.1", but cannot match "Windows" in "Windows 2000 ". Pre-query does not consume characters. That is to say, after a match occurs, the next matching search starts immediately after the last match, instead of starting after the pre-query characters.
X | y	Match x or y. For example, 'z | food' can match "z" or "food ". '(Z | f) ood' matches "zood" or "food ".
[Xyz]	Character Set combination. Match any character in it. For example, '[abc]' can match 'A' in "plain '.
[^ Xyz]	Negative value character set combination. Match any character not included. For example, '[^ abc]' can match 'p' in "plain '.
[A-z]	Character range. Matches any character in the specified range. For example, '[a-z]' can match any lowercase letter in the range of 'A' to 'Z.
[^ A-z]	Negative character range. Matches any character that is not within the specified range. For example, '[^ a-z]' can match any character that is not in the range of 'A' to 'Z.
\ B	Match A Word boundary, that is, the position between a word and a space. For example, 'er \ B 'can match 'er' in "never", but cannot match 'er 'in "verb '.
\ B	Match non-word boundary. 'Er \ B 'can match 'er' in "verb", but cannot match 'er 'in "never '.
\ Cx	Match the control characters specified by x. For example, \ cM matches a Control-M or carriage return character. The value of x must be either a A-Z or a-z. Otherwise, c is treated as an original 'C' character.
\ D	Match a numeric character. It is equivalent to [0-9].
\ D	Match a non-numeric character. It is equivalent to [^ 0-9].
\ F	Match a form feed. It is equivalent to \ x0c and \ cL.
\ N	Match A linefeed. It is equivalent to \ x0a and \ cJ.
\ R	Match a carriage return. It is equivalent to \ x0d and \ cM.
\ S	Matches any blank characters, including spaces, tabs, and page breaks. It is equivalent to [\ f \ n \ r \ t \ v].
\ S	Match any non-blank characters. It is equivalent to [^ \ f \ n \ r \ t \ v].
\ T	Match a tab. It is equivalent to \ x09 and \ cI.
\ V	Match a vertical tab. It is equivalent to \ x0b and \ cK.
\ W	Match any word characters that contain underscores. It is equivalent to '[A-Za-z0-9 _]'.
\ W	Match any non-word characters. It is equivalent to '[^ A-Za-z0-9 _]'.
\ Xn	Match n, where n is the hexadecimal escape value. The hexadecimal escape value must be determined by the length of two numbers. For example, '\ x41' matches "". '\ X041' is equivalent to '\ x04' & "1 ". The regular expression can use ASCII encoding ..
\ Num	Matches num, where num is a positive integer. References to the obtained matching. For example, '(.) \ 1' matches two consecutive identical characters.
\ N	Identifies an octal escape value or a backward reference. If at least n subexpressions are obtained before \ n, n is a backward reference. Otherwise, if n is an octal digit (0-7), n is an octal escape value.
\ Nm	Identifies an octal escape value or a backward reference. If there are at least is preceded by at least nm obtained subexpressions before \ nm, then nm is backward reference. If at least n records are obtained before \ nm, n is a backward reference followed by text m. If none of the preceding conditions are met, if n and m are Octal numbers (0-7), \ nm matches the octal escape value nm.
\ Nml	If n is an octal number (0-3) and m and l are Octal numbers (0-7), the octal escape value nml is matched.
\ Un	Match n, where n is a Unicode character represented by four hexadecimal numbers. For example, \ u00A9 matches the copyright symbol (?).