Explain this regex used in RoR /\A([^#\s]+)#((?:[-a-z0-9]+.)+[a-z]{2,})\Z/i
What does the \A tag do ?
The \A and \Z markers are meant to provide a way to identify the start and end of a string, primarily for multi-line strings.
If you're processing one line at a time (which is mostly, but not completely, the case with UNIXy text processing tools), you could simply use ^ and $ because start/end of string is the same as start/end of line.
For example, the single string:
This is line 1
and this is line 2
would have two matches for ^, one before This and one between 1 and and. It would only have one match for \A, before This.
Start of a string.
See the "Permanent Start of String and End of String Anchors" section
As Chris Diver said, start of a string.
You can experiment with Regular Expressions at http://rubular.com.
Related
I am using regular expression to validate emails mentioned in http://fightingforalostcause.net/content/misc/2006/compare-email-regex.php.
This is its current form :
/^(?!(?:(?:\x22?\x5C[\x00-\x7E]\x22?)|(?:\x22?[^\x5C\x22]\x22?)){255,})(?!(?:(?:\x22?\x5C[\x00-\x7E]\x22?)|(?:\x22?[^\x5C\x22]\x22?)){65,}#)(?:(?:[\x21\x23-\x27\x2A\x2B\x2D\x2F-\x39\x3D\x3F\x5E-\x7E]+)|(?:\x22(?:[\x01-\x08\x0B\x0C\x0E-\x1F\x21\x23-\x5B\x5D-\x7F]|(?:\x5C[\x00-\x7F]))*\x22))(?:\.(?:(?:[\x21\x23-\x27\x2A\x2B\x2D\x2F-\x39\x3D\x3F\x5E-\x7E]+)|(?:\x22(?:[\x01-\x08\x0B\x0C\x0E-\x1F\x21\x23-\x5B\x5D-\x7F]|(?:\x5C[\x00-\x7F]))*\x22)))*#(?:(?:(?!.*[^.]{64,})(?:(?:(?:xn--)?[a-z0-9]+(?:-[a-z0-9]+)*\.){1,126}){1,}(?:(?:[a-z][a-z0-9]*)|(?:(?:xn--)[a-z0-9]+))(?:-[a-z0-9]+)*)|(?:\[(?:(?:IPv6:(?:(?:[a-f0-9]{1,4}(?::[a-f0-9]{1,4}){7})|(?:(?!(?:.*[a-f0-9][:\]]){7,})(?:[a-f0-9]{1,4}(?::[a-f0-9]{1,4}){0,5})?::(?:[a-f0-9]{1,4}(?::[a-f0-9]{1,4}){0,5})?)))|(?:(?:IPv6:(?:(?:[a-f0-9]{1,4}(?::[a-f0-9]{1,4}){5}:)|(?:(?!(?:.*[a-f0-9]:){5,})(?:[a-f0-9]{1,4}(?::[a-f0-9]{1,4}){0,3})?::(?:[a-f0-9]{1,4}(?::[a-f0-9]{1,4}){0,3}:)?)))?(?:(?:25[0-5])|(?:2[0-4][0-9])|(?:1[0-9]{2})|(?:[1-9]?[0-9]))(?:\.(?:(?:25[0-5])|(?:2[0-4][0-9])|(?:1[0-9]{2})|(?:[1-9]?[0-9]))){3}))\]))$/i
My problem is that this expression is allowing emails with line breaks:
example1#domain.com\n\nexample2#domain.com
Does anyone have a suggestion to invalidate one e-mail with line breaks?
Instead of ^ and $ at the beginning and the end respectively, you should use \A and \z:
/\A(?!(?:(?:\x22?\x5C[\x00-\x7E]\x22?)|(?:\x22?[^\x5C\x22]\x22?)){255,})(?!(?:(?:\x22?\x5C[\x00-\x7E]\x22?)|(?:\x22?[^\x5C\x22]\x22?)){65,}#)(?:(?:[\x21\x23-\x27\x2A\x2B\x2D\x2F-\x39\x3D\x3F\x5E-\x7E]+)|(?:\x22(?:[\x01-\x08\x0B\x0C\x0E-\x1F\x21\x23-\x5B\x5D-\x7F]|(?:\x5C[\x00-\x7F]))*\x22))(?:\.(?:(?:[\x21\x23-\x27\x2A\x2B\x2D\x2F-\x39\x3D\x3F\x5E-\x7E]+)|(?:\x22(?:[\x01-\x08\x0B\x0C\x0E-\x1F\x21\x23-\x5B\x5D-\x7F]|(?:\x5C[\x00-\x7F]))*\x22)))*#(?:(?:(?!.*[^.]{64,})(?:(?:(?:xn--)?[a-z0-9]+(?:-[a-z0-9]+)*\.){1,126}){1,}(?:(?:[a-z][a-z0-9]*)|(?:(?:xn--)[a-z0-9]+))(?:-[a-z0-9]+)*)|(?:\[(?:(?:IPv6:(?:(?:[a-f0-9]{1,4}(?::[a-f0-9]{1,4}){7})|(?:(?!(?:.*[a-f0-9][:\]]){7,})(?:[a-f0-9]{1,4}(?::[a-f0-9]{1,4}){0,5})?::(?:[a-f0-9]{1,4}(?::[a-f0-9]{1,4}){0,5})?)))|(?:(?:IPv6:(?:(?:[a-f0-9]{1,4}(?::[a-f0-9]{1,4}){5}:)|(?:(?!(?:.*[a-f0-9]:){5,})(?:[a-f0-9]{1,4}(?::[a-f0-9]{1,4}){0,3})?::(?:[a-f0-9]{1,4}(?::[a-f0-9]{1,4}){0,3}:)?)))?(?:(?:25[0-5])|(?:2[0-4][0-9])|(?:1[0-9]{2})|(?:[1-9]?[0-9]))(?:\.(?:(?:25[0-5])|(?:2[0-4][0-9])|(?:1[0-9]{2})|(?:[1-9]?[0-9]))){3}))\]))\z/i
The difference is that ^ and $ matches start/end of line, while \A and \z matches start/end of string.
I can't figure out what does this regex match:
A: "\\/\\/c\\/(\\d*)"
B: "\\/\\/(\\d*)"
I suppose they are matching some kind of number sequence since \d matches any digit but I'd like to know an example of a string that would be a match for this regex.
The pattern syntax is that specified by ICU. Expressions are created with NSRegularExpression in an iOS app and are correct.
The first matches //c/ + 0 or more digits. The second matches // + 0 or more digits. In both the digits are captured.
An example of a match for A) is //c/123
An example of a match for B) is //12345
When I use Cygwin which emulates Bash on Windows, I sometimes run into situations where I have to escape my escape characters which is what I think is making this expression look so weird. For instance, when I use sed to look for a single '\' I sometimes have to write it as '\\\\'. (Funny, StackOverflow proved my point. If you write 4 backslashes in the comment, it only shows two. So if you process it again, they might all disappear depending on your situation).
Considering this, it might be helpful to think of pairs of backslashes as representing only one if you're coming from a similar situation. My guess would be you are. Because of this I would say Erik Duymelinck is probably spot on. This will capture a sequence of digits that may or may not follow a couple slashes and a c:
//c/000
//00000
This regex matches an odd sequence of characters, which, at first glance, almost seem like a regex, since \d is a digit, and followed by an asterisk (\d*) would mean zero-or-more digits. But it's not a digit, because the escape-slash is escaped.
\\/\\/c\\/(\\d*)
So, for instance, this one matches the following text:
\/\/c\/\
\/\/c\/\d
\/\/c\/\dd
\/\/c\/\ddd
\/\/c\/\dddd
\/\/c\/\ddddd
\/\/c\/\dddddd
...
This one is almost the same
\\/\\/(\\d*)
except you just delete the c\/ from the above results:
\/\/\
\/\/\d
\/\/\dd
\/\/\ddd
\/\/\dddd
\/\/\ddddd
\/\/\dddddd
...
In both cases, the final \ and optional d is [capture group][1] one.
My first impression was that these regexes were intended for escaping in Java strings, meaning they would be completely invalid. If the were escaped for Java strings, such as
Pattern p = Pattern.compile("\\/\\/c\\/(\\d*)");
It would be invalid, because after un-escaping, it would result in this invalid regex:
\/\/c\/(\d*)
The single escape-slashes (\) are invalid. But the \d is valid, as it would mean any digit.
But again, I don't think they're invalid, and they're not escaped for a Java string. They're just odd.
Hi I'm creating a regular expression (ruby) to test the beginning and end of string. I have both parts but can't join them.
Beginning of string
\A(http:\/\/+)
End of string
(.pdf)\z
How to join?
Bonus if it could validate in-between and accept anything (to avoid http://.pdf)
By the way, rubular http://rubular.com is a neat place to validate expressions
Use .+ to match any character except \n one or more times.
\A(http:\/\/+).+(\.pdf)\z
Should match http://www.stackoverflow.com/bestbook.pdf but not http://.pdf
I would like to use regular expression to check if my string have the format like following:
mc_834faisd88979asdfas8897asff8790ds_oa_ids
mc_834fappsd58979asdfas8897asdf879ds_oa_ids
mc_834faispd8fs9asaas4897asdsaf879ds_oa_ids
mc_834faisd8dfa979asdfaspo97asf879ds_dv_ids
mc_834faisd111979asdfas88mp7asf879ds_dv_ids
mc_834fais00979asdfas8897asf87ggg9ds_dv_ids
The format is like mc_<random string>_oa_ids or mc_<random string>_dv_ids . How can I check if my string is in either of these two formats? And please explain the regular expression. thank you.
That's a string start with mc_, while end with _oa_ids or dv_ids, and have some random string in the middle.
P.S. the random string consists of alpha-beta letters and numbers.
What I tried(I have no clue how to check the random string):
/^mc_834faisd88979asdfas8897asff8790ds$_os_ids/
Try this.
^mc_[0-9a-z]+_(dv|oa)_ids$
^ matches at the start of the line the regex pattern is applied to.
[0-9a-z] matces alphabetic and numeric chars.
+ means that there should be one or more chars in this set
(dv|oa) matches dv or oa
$ matches at the end of the string the regex pattern is applied to.
also matches before the very last line break if the string ends with a line break.
Give /\Amc_\w*_(oa|dv)_ids\z/ a try. \A is the beginning of the string, \z the end. \w* are one or more of letters, numbers and underscores and (oa|dv) is either oa or dv.
A nice and simple way to test Ruby Regexps is Rubular, might have a look at it.
This should work
/mc_834([a-z,0-9]*)_(oa|dv)_ids/g
Example: http://regexr.com?2v9q7
I am trying to find a regex to limit what a person can use for a username on my site. I don't need to have it check to see how many characters there are in it, as another validation does this. Basically all I need to make it do is make sure that it allows: letters (capital and lowercase) numbers, dashes and underscores.
I came across this: /^[-a-z]+$/i
But it doesn't seem to allow numbers.
What am I missing?
The regex you're looking for is
/\A[a-z0-9\-_]+\z/i
Meaning one or more characters of range a-z, range 0-9, - (needs to be escaped with a backslash) and _, case insensitive (the i qualifier)
Use
/\A[\w-]+\z$/
\w is shorthand for letters, digits and underscore.
\A matches at the start of the string, \z matches at the end of the string. These tokens are called anchors, and Ruby is a bit special with regard to them: Most regex engines use ^ and $ as start/end-of-string anchors by default, whereas in Ruby they can also match at the start/end of lines (which matters if you're working with multiline strings). Therefore, it's safer (as #JustMichael pointed out) to use \A and \z because there is no such ambiguity.
Your regular expression contains a character class [-a-z] that allows the characters - (dash) and a through z. In order to expand the range of characters allowed by this character class, you will need to add more characters within the [].
Please see Character Classes or Character Sets for further information and examples.