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8a118206 | 1 | =head1 NAME |
ea449505 | 2 | X<character class> |
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3 | |
4 | perlrecharclass - Perl Regular Expression Character Classes | |
5 | ||
6 | =head1 DESCRIPTION | |
7 | ||
8 | The top level documentation about Perl regular expressions | |
9 | is found in L<perlre>. | |
10 | ||
11 | This manual page discusses the syntax and use of character | |
12 | classes in Perl Regular Expressions. | |
13 | ||
14 | A character class is a way of denoting a set of characters, | |
15 | in such a way that one character of the set is matched. | |
16 | It's important to remember that matching a character class | |
17 | consumes exactly one character in the source string. (The source | |
18 | string is the string the regular expression is matched against.) | |
19 | ||
20 | There are three types of character classes in Perl regular | |
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21 | expressions: the dot, backslashed sequences, and the form enclosed in square |
22 | brackets. Keep in mind, though, that often the term "character class" is used | |
23 | to mean just the bracketed form. This is true in other Perl documentation. | |
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24 | |
25 | =head2 The dot | |
26 | ||
27 | The dot (or period), C<.> is probably the most used, and certainly | |
28 | the most well-known character class. By default, a dot matches any | |
29 | character, except for the newline. The default can be changed to | |
30 | add matching the newline with the I<single line> modifier: either | |
31 | for the entire regular expression using the C</s> modifier, or | |
32 | locally using C<(?s)>. | |
33 | ||
34 | Here are some examples: | |
35 | ||
36 | "a" =~ /./ # Match | |
37 | "." =~ /./ # Match | |
38 | "" =~ /./ # No match (dot has to match a character) | |
39 | "\n" =~ /./ # No match (dot does not match a newline) | |
40 | "\n" =~ /./s # Match (global 'single line' modifier) | |
41 | "\n" =~ /(?s:.)/ # Match (local 'single line' modifier) | |
42 | "ab" =~ /^.$/ # No match (dot matches one character) | |
43 | ||
8a118206 | 44 | =head2 Backslashed sequences |
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45 | X<\w> X<\W> X<\s> X<\S> X<\d> X<\D> X<\p> X<\P> |
46 | X<\N> X<\v> X<\V> X<\h> X<\H> | |
47 | X<word> X<whitespace> | |
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48 | |
49 | Perl regular expressions contain many backslashed sequences that | |
50 | constitute a character class. That is, they will match a single | |
51 | character, if that character belongs to a specific set of characters | |
52 | (defined by the sequence). A backslashed sequence is a sequence of | |
53 | characters starting with a backslash. Not all backslashed sequences | |
df225385 | 54 | are character classes; for a full list, see L<perlrebackslash>. |
8a118206 | 55 | |
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56 | Here's a list of the backslashed sequences that are character classes. They |
57 | are discussed in more detail below. | |
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58 | |
59 | \d Match a digit character. | |
60 | \D Match a non-digit character. | |
61 | \w Match a "word" character. | |
62 | \W Match a non-"word" character. | |
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63 | \s Match a whitespace character. |
64 | \S Match a non-whitespace character. | |
65 | \h Match a horizontal whitespace character. | |
66 | \H Match a character that isn't horizontal whitespace. | |
b3b85878 | 67 | \N Match a character that isn't newline. Experimental. |
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68 | \v Match a vertical whitespace character. |
69 | \V Match a character that isn't vertical whitespace. | |
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70 | \pP, \p{Prop} Match a character matching a Unicode property. |
71 | \PP, \P{Prop} Match a character that doesn't match a Unicode property. | |
72 | ||
73 | =head3 Digits | |
74 | ||
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75 | C<\d> matches a single character that is considered to be a I<digit>. What is |
76 | considered a digit depends on the internal encoding of the source string and | |
77 | the locale that is in effect. If the source string is in UTF-8 format, C<\d> | |
78 | not only matches the digits '0' - '9', but also Arabic, Devanagari and digits | |
79 | from other languages. Otherwise, if there is a locale in effect, it will match | |
80 | whatever characters the locale considers digits. Without a locale, C<\d> | |
81 | matches the digits '0' to '9'. See L</Locale, EBCDIC, Unicode and UTF-8>. | |
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82 | |
83 | Any character that isn't matched by C<\d> will be matched by C<\D>. | |
84 | ||
85 | =head3 Word characters | |
86 | ||
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87 | A C<\w> matches a single alphanumeric character (an alphabetic character, or a |
88 | decimal digit) or an underscore (C<_>), not a whole word. Use C<\w+> to match | |
89 | a string of Perl-identifier characters (which isn't the same as matching an | |
90 | English word). What is considered a word character depends on the internal | |
91 | encoding of the string and the locale or EBCDIC code page that is in effect. If | |
92 | it's in UTF-8 format, C<\w> matches those characters that are considered word | |
93 | characters in the Unicode database. That is, it not only matches ASCII letters, | |
94 | but also Thai letters, Greek letters, etc. If the source string isn't in UTF-8 | |
95 | format, C<\w> matches those characters that are considered word characters by | |
96 | the current locale or EBCDIC code page. Without a locale or EBCDIC code page, | |
97 | C<\w> matches the ASCII letters, digits and the underscore. | |
98 | See L</Locale, EBCDIC, Unicode and UTF-8>. | |
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99 | |
100 | Any character that isn't matched by C<\w> will be matched by C<\W>. | |
101 | ||
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102 | =head3 Whitespace |
103 | ||
104 | C<\s> matches any single character that is considered whitespace. In the ASCII | |
105 | range, C<\s> matches the horizontal tab (C<\t>), the new line (C<\n>), the form | |
106 | feed (C<\f>), the carriage return (C<\r>), and the space. (The vertical tab, | |
107 | C<\cK> is not matched by C<\s>.) The exact set of characters matched by C<\s> | |
108 | depends on whether the source string is in UTF-8 format and the locale or | |
109 | EBCDIC code page that is in effect. If it's in UTF-8 format, C<\s> matches what | |
110 | is considered whitespace in the Unicode database; the complete list is in the | |
111 | table below. Otherwise, if there is a locale or EBCDIC code page in effect, | |
112 | C<\s> matches whatever is considered whitespace by the current locale or EBCDIC | |
113 | code page. Without a locale or EBCDIC code page, C<\s> matches the five | |
114 | characters mentioned in the beginning of this paragraph. Perhaps the most | |
115 | notable possible surprise is that C<\s> matches a non-breaking space only if | |
116 | the non-breaking space is in a UTF-8 encoded string or the locale or EBCDIC | |
117 | code page that is in effect has that character. | |
118 | See L</Locale, EBCDIC, Unicode and UTF-8>. | |
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119 | |
120 | Any character that isn't matched by C<\s> will be matched by C<\S>. | |
121 | ||
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122 | C<\h> will match any character that is considered horizontal whitespace; |
123 | this includes the space and the tab characters and 17 other characters that are | |
124 | listed in the table below. C<\H> will match any character | |
125 | that is not considered horizontal whitespace. | |
126 | ||
127 | C<\N> is new in 5.12, and is experimental. It, like the dot, will match any | |
128 | character that is not a newline. The difference is that C<\N> will not be | |
c1c4ae3a | 129 | influenced by the single line C</s> regular expression modifier. Note that |
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130 | there is a second meaning of C<\N> when of the form C<\N{...}>. This form is |
131 | for named characters. See L<charnames> for those. If C<\N> is followed by an | |
132 | opening brace and something that is not a quantifier, perl will assume that a | |
133 | character name is coming, and not this meaning of C<\N>. For example, C<\N{3}> | |
134 | means to match 3 non-newlines; C<\N{5,}> means to match 5 or more non-newlines, | |
135 | but C<\N{4F}> and C<\N{F4}> are not legal quantifiers, and will cause perl to | |
136 | look for characters named C<4F> or C<F4>, respectively (and won't find them, | |
137 | thus raising an error, unless they have been defined using custom names). | |
138 | ||
139 | C<\v> will match any character that is considered vertical whitespace; | |
140 | this includes the carriage return and line feed characters (newline) plus 5 | |
141 | other characters listed in the table below. | |
142 | C<\V> will match any character that is not considered vertical whitespace. | |
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143 | |
144 | C<\R> matches anything that can be considered a newline under Unicode | |
145 | rules. It's not a character class, as it can match a multi-character | |
146 | sequence. Therefore, it cannot be used inside a bracketed character | |
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147 | class; use C<\v> instead (vertical whitespace). |
148 | Details are discussed in L<perlrebackslash>. | |
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149 | |
150 | Note that unlike C<\s>, C<\d> and C<\w>, C<\h> and C<\v> always match | |
151 | the same characters, regardless whether the source string is in UTF-8 | |
152 | format or not. The set of characters they match is also not influenced | |
c1c4ae3a | 153 | by locale nor EBCDIC code page. |
8a118206 | 154 | |
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155 | One might think that C<\s> is equivalent to C<[\h\v]>. This is not true. The |
156 | vertical tab (C<"\x0b">) is not matched by C<\s>, it is however considered | |
157 | vertical whitespace. Furthermore, if the source string is not in UTF-8 format, | |
158 | and any locale or EBCDIC code page that is in effect doesn't include them, the | |
159 | next line (C<"\x85">) and the no-break space (C<"\xA0">) characters are not | |
160 | matched by C<\s>, but are by C<\v> and C<\h> respectively. If the source | |
161 | string is in UTF-8 format, both the next line and the no-break space are | |
162 | matched by C<\s>. | |
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163 | |
164 | The following table is a complete listing of characters matched by | |
ea449505 | 165 | C<\s>, C<\h> and C<\v> as of Unicode 5.2. |
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166 | |
167 | The first column gives the code point of the character (in hex format), | |
168 | the second column gives the (Unicode) name. The third column indicates | |
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169 | by which class(es) the character is matched (assuming no locale or EBCDIC code |
170 | page is in effect that changes the C<\s> matching). | |
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171 | |
172 | 0x00009 CHARACTER TABULATION h s | |
173 | 0x0000a LINE FEED (LF) vs | |
174 | 0x0000b LINE TABULATION v | |
175 | 0x0000c FORM FEED (FF) vs | |
176 | 0x0000d CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) vs | |
177 | 0x00020 SPACE h s | |
178 | 0x00085 NEXT LINE (NEL) vs [1] | |
179 | 0x000a0 NO-BREAK SPACE h s [1] | |
180 | 0x01680 OGHAM SPACE MARK h s | |
181 | 0x0180e MONGOLIAN VOWEL SEPARATOR h s | |
182 | 0x02000 EN QUAD h s | |
183 | 0x02001 EM QUAD h s | |
184 | 0x02002 EN SPACE h s | |
185 | 0x02003 EM SPACE h s | |
186 | 0x02004 THREE-PER-EM SPACE h s | |
187 | 0x02005 FOUR-PER-EM SPACE h s | |
188 | 0x02006 SIX-PER-EM SPACE h s | |
189 | 0x02007 FIGURE SPACE h s | |
190 | 0x02008 PUNCTUATION SPACE h s | |
191 | 0x02009 THIN SPACE h s | |
192 | 0x0200a HAIR SPACE h s | |
193 | 0x02028 LINE SEPARATOR vs | |
194 | 0x02029 PARAGRAPH SEPARATOR vs | |
195 | 0x0202f NARROW NO-BREAK SPACE h s | |
196 | 0x0205f MEDIUM MATHEMATICAL SPACE h s | |
197 | 0x03000 IDEOGRAPHIC SPACE h s | |
198 | ||
199 | =over 4 | |
200 | ||
201 | =item [1] | |
202 | ||
203 | NEXT LINE and NO-BREAK SPACE only match C<\s> if the source string is in | |
ea449505 | 204 | UTF-8 format, or the locale or EBCDIC code page that is in effect includes them. |
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205 | |
206 | =back | |
207 | ||
208 | It is worth noting that C<\d>, C<\w>, etc, match single characters, not | |
209 | complete numbers or words. To match a number (that consists of integers), | |
210 | use C<\d+>; to match a word, use C<\w+>. | |
211 | ||
212 | ||
213 | =head3 Unicode Properties | |
214 | ||
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215 | C<\pP> and C<\p{Prop}> are character classes to match characters that fit given |
216 | Unicode properties. One letter property names can be used in the C<\pP> form, | |
217 | with the property name following the C<\p>, otherwise, braces are required. | |
218 | When using braces, there is a single form, which is just the property name | |
219 | enclosed in the braces, and a compound form which looks like C<\p{name=value}>, | |
220 | which means to match if the property "name" for the character has the particular | |
221 | "value". | |
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222 | For instance, a match for a number can be written as C</\pN/> or as |
223 | C</\p{Number}/>, or as C</\p{Number=True}/>. | |
224 | Lowercase letters are matched by the property I<Lowercase_Letter> which | |
225 | has as short form I<Ll>. They need the braces, so are written as C</\p{Ll}/> or | |
226 | C</\p{Lowercase_Letter}/>, or C</\p{General_Category=Lowercase_Letter}/> | |
227 | (the underscores are optional). | |
228 | C</\pLl/> is valid, but means something different. | |
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229 | It matches a two character string: a letter (Unicode property C<\pL>), |
230 | followed by a lowercase C<l>. | |
231 | ||
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232 | For more details, see L<perlunicode/Unicode Character Properties>; for a |
233 | complete list of possible properties, see | |
234 | L<perluniprops/Properties accessible through \p{} and \P{}>. | |
235 | It is also possible to define your own properties. This is discussed in | |
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236 | L<perlunicode/User-Defined Character Properties>. |
237 | ||
238 | ||
239 | =head4 Examples | |
240 | ||
241 | "a" =~ /\w/ # Match, "a" is a 'word' character. | |
242 | "7" =~ /\w/ # Match, "7" is a 'word' character as well. | |
243 | "a" =~ /\d/ # No match, "a" isn't a digit. | |
244 | "7" =~ /\d/ # Match, "7" is a digit. | |
ea449505 | 245 | " " =~ /\s/ # Match, a space is whitespace. |
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246 | "a" =~ /\D/ # Match, "a" is a non-digit. |
247 | "7" =~ /\D/ # No match, "7" is not a non-digit. | |
ea449505 | 248 | " " =~ /\S/ # No match, a space is not non-whitespace. |
8a118206 | 249 | |
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250 | " " =~ /\h/ # Match, space is horizontal whitespace. |
251 | " " =~ /\v/ # No match, space is not vertical whitespace. | |
252 | "\r" =~ /\v/ # Match, a return is vertical whitespace. | |
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253 | |
254 | "a" =~ /\pL/ # Match, "a" is a letter. | |
255 | "a" =~ /\p{Lu}/ # No match, /\p{Lu}/ matches upper case letters. | |
256 | ||
257 | "\x{0e0b}" =~ /\p{Thai}/ # Match, \x{0e0b} is the character | |
258 | # 'THAI CHARACTER SO SO', and that's in | |
259 | # Thai Unicode class. | |
ea449505 | 260 | "a" =~ /\P{Lao}/ # Match, as "a" is not a Laotian character. |
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261 | |
262 | ||
263 | =head2 Bracketed Character Classes | |
264 | ||
265 | The third form of character class you can use in Perl regular expressions | |
266 | is the bracketed form. In its simplest form, it lists the characters | |
c1c4ae3a | 267 | that may be matched, surrounded by square brackets, like this: C<[aeiou]>. |
ea449505 | 268 | This matches one of C<a>, C<e>, C<i>, C<o> or C<u>. Like the other |
8a118206 | 269 | character classes, exactly one character will be matched. To match |
ea449505 | 270 | a longer string consisting of characters mentioned in the character |
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271 | class, follow the character class with a quantifier. For instance, |
272 | C<[aeiou]+> matches a string of one or more lowercase ASCII vowels. | |
273 | ||
274 | Repeating a character in a character class has no | |
275 | effect; it's considered to be in the set only once. | |
276 | ||
277 | Examples: | |
278 | ||
279 | "e" =~ /[aeiou]/ # Match, as "e" is listed in the class. | |
280 | "p" =~ /[aeiou]/ # No match, "p" is not listed in the class. | |
281 | "ae" =~ /^[aeiou]$/ # No match, a character class only matches | |
282 | # a single character. | |
283 | "ae" =~ /^[aeiou]+$/ # Match, due to the quantifier. | |
284 | ||
285 | =head3 Special Characters Inside a Bracketed Character Class | |
286 | ||
287 | Most characters that are meta characters in regular expressions (that | |
df225385 | 288 | is, characters that carry a special meaning like C<.>, C<*>, or C<(>) lose |
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289 | their special meaning and can be used inside a character class without |
290 | the need to escape them. For instance, C<[()]> matches either an opening | |
291 | parenthesis, or a closing parenthesis, and the parens inside the character | |
292 | class don't group or capture. | |
293 | ||
294 | Characters that may carry a special meaning inside a character class are: | |
295 | C<\>, C<^>, C<->, C<[> and C<]>, and are discussed below. They can be | |
296 | escaped with a backslash, although this is sometimes not needed, in which | |
297 | case the backslash may be omitted. | |
298 | ||
299 | The sequence C<\b> is special inside a bracketed character class. While | |
300 | outside the character class C<\b> is an assertion indicating a point | |
301 | that does not have either two word characters or two non-word characters | |
302 | on either side, inside a bracketed character class, C<\b> matches a | |
303 | backspace character. | |
304 | ||
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305 | The sequences |
306 | C<\a>, | |
307 | C<\c>, | |
308 | C<\e>, | |
309 | C<\f>, | |
310 | C<\n>, | |
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311 | C<\N{I<NAME>}>, |
312 | C<\N{U+I<wide hex char>}>, | |
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313 | C<\r>, |
314 | C<\t>, | |
315 | and | |
316 | C<\x> | |
317 | are also special and have the same meanings as they do outside a bracketed character | |
318 | class. | |
319 | ||
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320 | Also, a backslash followed by two or three octal digits is considered an octal |
321 | number. | |
df225385 | 322 | |
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323 | A C<[> is not special inside a character class, unless it's the start |
324 | of a POSIX character class (see below). It normally does not need escaping. | |
325 | ||
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326 | A C<]> is normally either the end of a POSIX character class (see below), or it |
327 | signals the end of the bracketed character class. If you want to include a | |
328 | C<]> in the set of characters, you must generally escape it. | |
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329 | However, if the C<]> is the I<first> (or the second if the first |
330 | character is a caret) character of a bracketed character class, it | |
331 | does not denote the end of the class (as you cannot have an empty class) | |
332 | and is considered part of the set of characters that can be matched without | |
333 | escaping. | |
334 | ||
335 | Examples: | |
336 | ||
337 | "+" =~ /[+?*]/ # Match, "+" in a character class is not special. | |
338 | "\cH" =~ /[\b]/ # Match, \b inside in a character class | |
c1c4ae3a | 339 | # is equivalent to a backspace. |
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340 | "]" =~ /[][]/ # Match, as the character class contains. |
341 | # both [ and ]. | |
342 | "[]" =~ /[[]]/ # Match, the pattern contains a character class | |
343 | # containing just ], and the character class is | |
344 | # followed by a ]. | |
345 | ||
346 | =head3 Character Ranges | |
347 | ||
348 | It is not uncommon to want to match a range of characters. Luckily, instead | |
349 | of listing all the characters in the range, one may use the hyphen (C<->). | |
350 | If inside a bracketed character class you have two characters separated | |
351 | by a hyphen, it's treated as if all the characters between the two are in | |
352 | the class. For instance, C<[0-9]> matches any ASCII digit, and C<[a-m]> | |
353 | matches any lowercase letter from the first half of the ASCII alphabet. | |
354 | ||
355 | Note that the two characters on either side of the hyphen are not | |
356 | necessary both letters or both digits. Any character is possible, | |
357 | although not advisable. C<['-?]> contains a range of characters, but | |
358 | most people will not know which characters that will be. Furthermore, | |
359 | such ranges may lead to portability problems if the code has to run on | |
360 | a platform that uses a different character set, such as EBCDIC. | |
361 | ||
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362 | If a hyphen in a character class cannot syntactically be part of a range, for |
363 | instance because it is the first or the last character of the character class, | |
8a118206 | 364 | or if it immediately follows a range, the hyphen isn't special, and will be |
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365 | considered a character that may be matched literally. You have to escape the |
366 | hyphen with a backslash if you want to have a hyphen in your set of characters | |
367 | to be matched, and its position in the class is such that it could be | |
368 | considered part of a range. | |
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369 | |
370 | Examples: | |
371 | ||
372 | [a-z] # Matches a character that is a lower case ASCII letter. | |
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373 | [a-fz] # Matches any letter between 'a' and 'f' (inclusive) or |
374 | # the letter 'z'. | |
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375 | [-z] # Matches either a hyphen ('-') or the letter 'z'. |
376 | [a-f-m] # Matches any letter between 'a' and 'f' (inclusive), the | |
377 | # hyphen ('-'), or the letter 'm'. | |
378 | ['-?] # Matches any of the characters '()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>? | |
379 | # (But not on an EBCDIC platform). | |
380 | ||
381 | ||
382 | =head3 Negation | |
383 | ||
384 | It is also possible to instead list the characters you do not want to | |
385 | match. You can do so by using a caret (C<^>) as the first character in the | |
386 | character class. For instance, C<[^a-z]> matches a character that is not a | |
387 | lowercase ASCII letter. | |
388 | ||
389 | This syntax make the caret a special character inside a bracketed character | |
390 | class, but only if it is the first character of the class. So if you want | |
391 | to have the caret as one of the characters you want to match, you either | |
392 | have to escape the caret, or not list it first. | |
393 | ||
394 | Examples: | |
395 | ||
396 | "e" =~ /[^aeiou]/ # No match, the 'e' is listed. | |
397 | "x" =~ /[^aeiou]/ # Match, as 'x' isn't a lowercase vowel. | |
398 | "^" =~ /[^^]/ # No match, matches anything that isn't a caret. | |
399 | "^" =~ /[x^]/ # Match, caret is not special here. | |
400 | ||
401 | =head3 Backslash Sequences | |
402 | ||
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403 | You can put any backslash sequence character class (with the exception of |
404 | C<\N>) inside a bracketed character class, and it will act just | |
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405 | as if you put all the characters matched by the backslash sequence inside the |
406 | character class. For instance, C<[a-f\d]> will match any digit, or any of the | |
407 | lowercase letters between 'a' and 'f' inclusive. | |
408 | ||
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409 | C<\N> within a bracketed character class must be of the forms C<\N{I<name>}> or |
410 | C<\N{U+I<wide hex char>}> for the same reason that a dot C<.> inside a | |
411 | bracketed character class loses its special meaning: it matches nearly | |
412 | anything, which generally isn't what you want to happen. | |
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413 | |
414 | Examples: | |
415 | ||
416 | /[\p{Thai}\d]/ # Matches a character that is either a Thai | |
417 | # character, or a digit. | |
418 | /[^\p{Arabic}()]/ # Matches a character that is neither an Arabic | |
419 | # character, nor a parenthesis. | |
420 | ||
421 | Backslash sequence character classes cannot form one of the endpoints | |
422 | of a range. | |
423 | ||
424 | =head3 Posix Character Classes | |
ea449505 | 425 | X<character class> X<\p> X<\p{}> |
ea449505 KW |
426 | X<alpha> X<alnum> X<ascii> X<blank> X<cntrl> X<digit> X<graph> |
427 | X<lower> X<print> X<punct> X<space> X<upper> X<word> X<xdigit> | |
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428 | |
429 | Posix character classes have the form C<[:class:]>, where I<class> is | |
ea449505 | 430 | name, and the C<[:> and C<:]> delimiters. Posix character classes only appear |
8a118206 | 431 | I<inside> bracketed character classes, and are a convenient and descriptive |
c1c4ae3a KW |
432 | way of listing a group of characters, though they currently suffer from |
433 | portability issues (see below and L<Locale, EBCDIC, Unicode and UTF-8>). Be | |
434 | careful about the syntax, | |
8a118206 RGS |
435 | |
436 | # Correct: | |
437 | $string =~ /[[:alpha:]]/ | |
438 | ||
439 | # Incorrect (will warn): | |
440 | $string =~ /[:alpha:]/ | |
441 | ||
442 | The latter pattern would be a character class consisting of a colon, | |
443 | and the letters C<a>, C<l>, C<p> and C<h>. | |
ea449505 KW |
444 | These character classes can be part of a larger bracketed character class. For |
445 | example, | |
446 | ||
447 | [01[:alpha:]%] | |
448 | ||
449 | is valid and matches '0', '1', any alphabetic character, and the percent sign. | |
8a118206 RGS |
450 | |
451 | Perl recognizes the following POSIX character classes: | |
452 | ||
ea449505 KW |
453 | alpha Any alphabetical character ("[A-Za-z]"). |
454 | alnum Any alphanumerical character. ("[A-Za-z0-9]") | |
455 | ascii Any character in the ASCII character set. | |
ea8b8ad2 | 456 | blank A GNU extension, equal to a space or a horizontal tab ("\t"). |
ea449505 KW |
457 | cntrl Any control character. See Note [2] below. |
458 | digit Any decimal digit ("[0-9]"), equivalent to "\d". | |
459 | graph Any printable character, excluding a space. See Note [3] below. | |
460 | lower Any lowercase character ("[a-z]"). | |
461 | print Any printable character, including a space. See Note [4] below. | |
c1c4ae3a | 462 | punct Any graphical character excluding "word" characters. Note [5]. |
ea449505 KW |
463 | space Any whitespace character. "\s" plus the vertical tab ("\cK"). |
464 | upper Any uppercase character ("[A-Z]"). | |
465 | word A Perl extension ("[A-Za-z0-9_]"), equivalent to "\w". | |
466 | xdigit Any hexadecimal digit ("[0-9a-fA-F]"). | |
467 | ||
468 | Most POSIX character classes have two Unicode-style C<\p> property | |
469 | counterparts. (They are not official Unicode properties, but Perl extensions | |
470 | derived from official Unicode properties.) The table below shows the relation | |
471 | between POSIX character classes and these counterparts. | |
472 | ||
473 | One counterpart, in the column labelled "ASCII-range Unicode" in | |
474 | the table will only match characters in the ASCII range. (On EBCDIC platforms, | |
475 | they match those characters which have ASCII equivalents.) | |
476 | ||
477 | The other counterpart, in the column labelled "Full-range Unicode", matches any | |
478 | appropriate characters in the full Unicode character set. For example, | |
479 | C<\p{Alpha}> will match not just the ASCII alphabetic characters, but any | |
480 | character in the entire Unicode character set that is considered to be | |
481 | alphabetic. | |
482 | ||
483 | (Each of the counterparts has various synonyms as well. | |
484 | L<perluniprops/Properties accessible through \p{} and \P{}> lists all the | |
485 | synonyms, plus all the characters matched by each of the ASCII-range | |
486 | properties. For example C<\p{AHex}> is a synonym for C<\p{ASCII_Hex_Digit}>, | |
487 | and any C<\p> property name can be prefixed with "Is" such as C<\p{IsAlpha}>.) | |
488 | ||
489 | Both the C<\p> forms are unaffected by any locale that is in effect, or whether | |
490 | the string is in UTF-8 format or not, or whether the platform is EBCDIC or not. | |
491 | In contrast, the POSIX character classes are affected. If the source string is | |
492 | in UTF-8 format, the POSIX classes (with the exception of C<[[:punct:]]>, see | |
493 | Note [5]) behave like their "Full-range" Unicode counterparts. If the source | |
494 | string is not in UTF-8 format, and no locale is in effect, and the platform is | |
495 | not EBCDIC, all the POSIX classes behave like their ASCII-range counterparts. | |
496 | Otherwise, they behave based on the rules of the locale or EBCDIC code page. | |
497 | It is proposed to change this behavior in a future release of Perl so that the | |
498 | the UTF8ness of the source string will be irrelevant to the behavior of the | |
499 | POSIX character classes. This means they will always behave in strict | |
500 | accordance with the official POSIX standard. That is, if either locale or | |
501 | EBCDIC code page is present, they will behave in accordance with those; if | |
502 | absent, the classes will match only their ASCII-range counterparts. If you | |
503 | disagree with this proposal, send email to C<perl5-porters@perl.org>. | |
504 | ||
505 | [[:...:]] ASCII-range Full-range backslash Note | |
506 | Unicode Unicode sequence | |
507 | ----------------------------------------------------- | |
508 | alpha \p{PosixAlpha} \p{Alpha} | |
509 | alnum \p{PosixAlnum} \p{Alnum} | |
510 | ascii \p{ASCII} | |
c1c4ae3a | 511 | blank \p{PosixBlank} \p{Blank} = [1] |
ea449505 KW |
512 | \p{HorizSpace} \h [1] |
513 | cntrl \p{PosixCntrl} \p{Cntrl} [2] | |
514 | digit \p{PosixDigit} \p{Digit} \d | |
515 | graph \p{PosixGraph} \p{Graph} [3] | |
516 | lower \p{PosixLower} \p{Lower} | |
517 | print \p{PosixPrint} \p{Print} [4] | |
518 | punct \p{PosixPunct} \p{Punct} [5] | |
519 | \p{PerlSpace} \p{SpacePerl} \s [6] | |
520 | space \p{PosixSpace} \p{Space} [6] | |
521 | upper \p{PosixUpper} \p{Upper} | |
522 | word \p{PerlWord} \p{Word} \w | |
523 | xdigit \p{ASCII_Hex_Digit} \p{XDigit} | |
8a118206 RGS |
524 | |
525 | =over 4 | |
526 | ||
ea449505 KW |
527 | =item [1] |
528 | ||
529 | C<\p{Blank}> and C<\p{HorizSpace}> are synonyms. | |
530 | ||
531 | =item [2] | |
8a118206 | 532 | |
ea449505 KW |
533 | Control characters don't produce output as such, but instead usually control |
534 | the terminal somehow: for example newline and backspace are control characters. | |
535 | In the ASCII range, characters whose ordinals are between 0 and 31 inclusive, | |
536 | plus 127 (C<DEL>) are control characters. | |
8a118206 | 537 | |
c1c4ae3a KW |
538 | On EBCDIC platforms, it is likely that the code page will define C<[[:cntrl:]]> |
539 | to be the EBCDIC equivalents of the ASCII controls, plus the controls | |
540 | that in Unicode have ordinals from 128 through 139. | |
ea449505 KW |
541 | |
542 | =item [3] | |
8a118206 RGS |
543 | |
544 | Any character that is I<graphical>, that is, visible. This class consists | |
545 | of all the alphanumerical characters and all punctuation characters. | |
546 | ||
ea449505 | 547 | =item [4] |
8a118206 RGS |
548 | |
549 | All printable characters, which is the set of all the graphical characters | |
ea449505 KW |
550 | plus whitespace characters that are not also controls. |
551 | ||
552 | =item [5] | |
553 | ||
554 | C<\p{PosixPunct}> and C<[[:punct:]]> in the ASCII range match all the | |
555 | non-controls, non-alphanumeric, non-space characters: | |
556 | C<[-!"#$%&'()*+,./:;<=E<gt>?@[\\\]^_`{|}~]> (although if a locale is in effect, | |
557 | it could alter the behavior of C<[[:punct:]]>). | |
558 | ||
559 | When the matching string is in UTF-8 format, C<[[:punct:]]> matches the above | |
c1c4ae3a KW |
560 | set, plus what C<\p{Punct}> matches. This is different than strictly matching |
561 | according to C<\p{Punct}>, because the above set includes characters that aren't | |
562 | considered punctuation by Unicode, but rather "symbols". Another way to say it | |
563 | is that for a UTF-8 string, C<[[:punct:]]> matches all the characters that | |
564 | Unicode considers to be punctuation, plus all the ASCII-range characters that | |
565 | Unicode considers to be symbols. | |
8a118206 | 566 | |
ea449505 | 567 | =item [6] |
8a118206 | 568 | |
ea449505 KW |
569 | C<\p{SpacePerl}> and C<\p{Space}> differ only in that C<\p{Space}> additionally |
570 | matches the vertical tab, C<\cK>. Same for the two ASCII-only range forms. | |
8a118206 RGS |
571 | |
572 | =back | |
573 | ||
574 | =head4 Negation | |
ea449505 | 575 | X<character class, negation> |
8a118206 RGS |
576 | |
577 | A Perl extension to the POSIX character class is the ability to | |
578 | negate it. This is done by prefixing the class name with a caret (C<^>). | |
579 | Some examples: | |
580 | ||
ea449505 KW |
581 | POSIX ASCII-range Full-range backslash |
582 | Unicode Unicode sequence | |
583 | ----------------------------------------------------- | |
c1c4ae3a | 584 | [[:^digit:]] \P{PosixDigit} \P{Digit} \D |
ea449505 | 585 | [[:^space:]] \P{PosixSpace} \P{Space} |
c1c4ae3a KW |
586 | \P{PerlSpace} \P{SpacePerl} \S |
587 | [[:^word:]] \P{PerlWord} \P{Word} \W | |
8a118206 RGS |
588 | |
589 | =head4 [= =] and [. .] | |
590 | ||
591 | Perl will recognize the POSIX character classes C<[=class=]>, and | |
ea449505 | 592 | C<[.class.]>, but does not (yet?) support them. Use of |
740bae87 | 593 | such a construct will lead to an error. |
8a118206 RGS |
594 | |
595 | ||
596 | =head4 Examples | |
597 | ||
598 | /[[:digit:]]/ # Matches a character that is a digit. | |
599 | /[01[:lower:]]/ # Matches a character that is either a | |
600 | # lowercase letter, or '0' or '1'. | |
c1c4ae3a KW |
601 | /[[:digit:][:^xdigit:]]/ # Matches a character that can be anything |
602 | # except the letters 'a' to 'f'. This is | |
603 | # because the main character class is composed | |
604 | # of two POSIX character classes that are ORed | |
605 | # together, one that matches any digit, and | |
606 | # the other that matches anything that isn't a | |
607 | # hex digit. The result matches all | |
608 | # characters except the letters 'a' to 'f' and | |
609 | # 'A' to 'F'. | |
8a118206 RGS |
610 | |
611 | ||
ea449505 | 612 | =head2 Locale, EBCDIC, Unicode and UTF-8 |
8a118206 RGS |
613 | |
614 | Some of the character classes have a somewhat different behaviour depending | |
615 | on the internal encoding of the source string, and the locale that is | |
ea449505 | 616 | in effect, and if the program is running on an EBCDIC platform. |
8a118206 RGS |
617 | |
618 | C<\w>, C<\d>, C<\s> and the POSIX character classes (and their negations, | |
c1c4ae3a KW |
619 | including C<\W>, C<\D>, C<\S>) suffer from this behaviour. (Since the backslash |
620 | sequences C<\b> and C<\B> are defined in terms of C<\w> and C<\W>, they also are | |
621 | affected.) | |
8a118206 RGS |
622 | |
623 | The rule is that if the source string is in UTF-8 format, the character | |
624 | classes match according to the Unicode properties. If the source string | |
ea449505 KW |
625 | isn't, then the character classes match according to whatever locale or EBCDIC |
626 | code page is in effect. If there is no locale nor EBCDIC, they match the ASCII | |
627 | defaults (52 letters, 10 digits and underscore for C<\w>; 0 to 9 for C<\d>; | |
c1c4ae3a | 628 | etc.). |
8a118206 RGS |
629 | |
630 | This usually means that if you are matching against characters whose C<ord()> | |
631 | values are between 128 and 255 inclusive, your character class may match | |
ea449505 KW |
632 | or not depending on the current locale or EBCDIC code page, and whether the |
633 | source string is in UTF-8 format. The string will be in UTF-8 format if it | |
634 | contains characters whose C<ord()> value exceeds 255. But a string may be in | |
635 | UTF-8 format without it having such characters. See L<perluniprops/The | |
636 | "Unicode Bug">. | |
8a118206 RGS |
637 | |
638 | For portability reasons, it may be better to not use C<\w>, C<\d>, C<\s> | |
639 | or the POSIX character classes, and use the Unicode properties instead. | |
640 | ||
641 | =head4 Examples | |
642 | ||
643 | $str = "\xDF"; # $str is not in UTF-8 format. | |
644 | $str =~ /^\w/; # No match, as $str isn't in UTF-8 format. | |
645 | $str .= "\x{0e0b}"; # Now $str is in UTF-8 format. | |
646 | $str =~ /^\w/; # Match! $str is now in UTF-8 format. | |
647 | chop $str; | |
648 | $str =~ /^\w/; # Still a match! $str remains in UTF-8 format. | |
649 | ||
650 | =cut |