This node is not a tutorial, just a quick synopsis of syntax.
Current Muq MUF regular expression syntax is implemented primarily
in muq/pkg/175-C-rex.t -- which is incidentally a good example of
a compiler for an embedded language in MUF -- with some C-coded
support in muq/c/rex.t.
Muq MUF follows the lead of Larry Wall's PERL language in regular expression syntax: His syntax has a simple quoting rule and minimizes the number of backslashes needed in typical uses of regular expressions. (I wince every time I read a regular expression written in emacs lisp.) The current implementation follows Perl v4: One of these days we'll probably add support for the v5 extensions.
Here are the regular expression operators Muq MUF currently recognizes:
a Match given char. Ditto other chars not listed below.
. Match any single character except a newline.
[a-z] Match any single character in the given ascii range.
[^a-z] Match any single character not in the given ascii range.
\d Match any single decimal digit: Same as [0-9].
\D Inverse of above: Same as [^0-9].
\s Match any single whitespace char.
\S Inverse of above.
\w Match any single word-component char: Same as [a-zA-Z0-9_].
\W Inverse of above: Same as [^a-zA-Z0-9_].
^ $ Match beginning or end of given string, respectively.
\n \r \t \f \0 Match newline/carraige-return/tab/formfeed/nul (respectively)
(<rex>) Parens group interior <rex> into a unit for exterior operators;
Parens also remember the substring they matched.
<rex>* Matches <rex> zero or more times.
<rex>+ Matches <rex> one or more times.
<rex>? Matches <rex> zero or one times.
<rex>{n} Matches <rex> exactly n times.
<rex>{n,} Matches <rex> at least n times.
<rex>{n,m} Matches <rex> at least n and at most m times.
<rex0>|<rex1> Match exactly one of <rex0> or <rex1>.
Hints:
To include ^ in a character set, make it non-first: [a-z^]. To include - in a character set, make it first: [-az] To subdue all operators, precede all nonalphanumeric chars with "\". In particular, to include a literal backslash, insert "\\".
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