Expression
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Syntax
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Description
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Example
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Minimal, zero or more
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@
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Matches zero or more occurrences of the preceding expression, and matches as few characters as possible.
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e.@e matches "ente" and "erprise" in "enterprise", but not the full word "enterprise".
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Minimal, one or more
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#
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Matches one or more occurrences of the preceding expression, and matches as few characters as possible.
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ac# matches words that contain the letter "a" and at least one instance of "c", such as "ace".
a.#s matches "acces" in the word "access".
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Repeat n times
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^n
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Matches n occurrences of the preceding expression.
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[0-9]^4 matches any 4-digit sequence.
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Grouping
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()
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Lets you group a set of expressions together. If you want to search for two different expressions in a single search, you can use the Grouping expression to combine them.
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If you want to search for - [a-z][1-3] or - [1-10][a-z], you would combine them: ([a-z][1-3]) | ([1-10][a-z]).
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nth tagged text
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\n
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In a Find or Replace expression, indicates the text that is matched by the nth tagged expression, where n is a number from 1 to 9.
In a Replace expression, \0 inserts the complete matched text.
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If you search for a{[0-9]} and replace with \1, all occurrences of "a" followed by a digit are replaced by the digit it follows. For example, "a1" is replaced by "1" and similarly "a2" is replaced by "2".
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Right-justified field
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\(w,n)
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In a Replace expression, right-justifies the nth tagged expression in a field at least w characters wide.
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If you search for a{[0-9]} and replace with \(10,1), the occurrences of "an" are replaced by the integer and right-justified by 10 spaces.
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Left-justified field
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\(-w,n)
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In a Replace expression, left-justifies the nth tagged expression in a field at least w characters wide.
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If you search for a{[0-9]} and replace with \(-10,1), the occurrences of "an" are replaced by the integer and left-justified by 10 spaces.
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Prevent match
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~(X)
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Prevents a match when X appears at this point in the expression.
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real~(ity) matches the "real" in "realty" and "really," but not the "real" in "reality."
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Alphanumeric character
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:a
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Matches the expression ([a-zA-Z0-9]).
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Matches any alphanumeric character, such as "a", "A", "w", "W", "5", and so on.
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Alphabetic character
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:c
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Matches the expression ([a-zA-Z]).
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Matches any alphabetical character, such as "a", "A", "w", "W", and so on.
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Decimal digit
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:d
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Matches the expression ([0-9]).
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Matches any digit, such as "4" and "6".
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Hexadecimal digit
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:h
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Matches the expression ([0-9a-fA-F]+).
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Matches any hexadecimal number, such as "1A", "ef", and "007".
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Rational number
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:n
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Matches the expression (([0-9]+.[0-9]*)|([0-9]*.[0-9]+)|([0-9]+)).
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Matches any rational number, such as "2007", "1.0", and ".9".
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Alphabetic string
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:w
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Matches the expression ([a-zA-Z]+).
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Matches any string that contains only alphabetical characters.
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Escape
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\e
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Unicode U+001B.
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Matches the "Escape" control character.
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Bell
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\g
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Unicode U+0007.
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Matches the "Bell" control character.
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Backspace
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\h
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Unicode U+0008.
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Matches the "Backspace" control character.
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Tab
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\t
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Unicode U+0009.
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Matches a tab character.
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Unicode character
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\x#### or \u####
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Matches a character given by Unicode value where #### is hexadecimal digits. You can specify a character that is outside the Basic Multilingual Plane (that is, a surrogate) with the ISO 10646 code point or with two Unicode code points that give the values of the surrogate pair.
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\u0065 matches the character "e".
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