User’s Manual
Meta Information
129
Example:
The format is enclosed into a string delimited by the quote (““)
character, new lines are not accepted in the regular expression.
The regular expressions are described here:
•
Prompt=”Due Date:”
Pattern= “0-9]{2}/0-9]{2}/0-9]{2}”
•
Prompt=”Orderer name:”
Pattern= “.+”
Character
Description
""
empty string only
.
matches any character except new line. (This pattern will be the
default value of the Meta Information format field)
+
(
postfix) matches the previous expression one or several times
*
(postfix) matches the previous expression zero, one or several
times
?
(postfix) matches the previous expression once or not at all
..]
character set; ranges are denoted with -, as in a-z]; an initial ^, as
in ^0-9], complements the set
r{1,5}
r could be repeated between 1 and 5 times *(upper limit: 48)
r{1}
r must be repeated exactly once.
r{2,}
r must be repeated at least twice.
r{,2}
r could be repeated twice (i.e. 0, 1 or 2 times).
^
matches at beginning of line
$
matches at end of line
"a|b"
"a" or "b"
|
(infix) alternative between two expressions
(...)
grouping and naming of the enclosed expression
\1
the text matched by the first (...) expression
(\2 for the second expression, etc)
\b
matches word boundaries
\
quotes special characters.
“0-9]”
"", "0", "14876328746", ...
"a-z]+"
"a", "qwerty", ...
"abcd?"
only "abc" and "abcd" correct
"A-Z]"
only one letter between 'A' and 'Z" correct
"i{1,3}"
only "i", "ii", "iii" correct.
