Word Boundary problem with regex

Word Boundary problem with regex

[Tim Johnson]

In case of word wrapping the text between (but not including) the lines
of asterisks should be on one line:

I am using the following expression
*******************************************************************************
\\([^][ \t\r\n{}()]+\\):[ ]*\\(d\\(ef\\|oes\\)\\|func\\(tion\\)\\|has\\|sub?\\)
*******************************************************************************

To colorize the following words: "def" "does" "func" "function" "has"
"sub" - which define subroutines.

When I type the following:  test: def[val][print val], "def" is
colorized properly. One would exect that adding a letter to "def" would
turn off the target color, but does not. This suggests to me that
I have not properly defined the word boundary in the expression above.

Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong?

FYI: This is for the rebol programming language (www.rebol.com), it
     should be noted that in lispish fashion, a subroutine is an
     expression, not an immutable control structure.

thanks
tim

-- 
Tim Johnson <tim@johnsons-web.com>
      http://www.alaska-internet-solutions.com

Re: Word Boundary problem with regex

[Pascal Bourguignon]

Tim Johnson <tim@johnsons-web.com> writes:

> In case of word wrapping the text between (but not including) the lines
> of asterisks should be on one line:
>
> I am using the following expression
> *******************************************************************************
> \\([^][ \t\r\n{}()]+\\):[ ]*\\(d\\(ef\\|oes\\)\\|func\\(tion\\)\\|has\\|sub?\\)
> *******************************************************************************
>
> To colorize the following words: "def" "does" "func" "function" "has"
> "sub" - which define subroutines.
>
> When I type the following:  test: def[val][print val], "def" is
> colorized properly. One would exect that adding a letter to "def" would
> turn off the target color, but does not. This suggests to me that
> I have not properly defined the word boundary in the expression above.
>
> Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong?
>
> FYI: This is for the rebol programming language (www.rebol.com), it
>      should be noted that in lispish fashion, a subroutine is an
>      expression, not an immutable control structure.

Just add "\\>" at the end.

You don't need "\\<" at the beginning since you're matching spaces and
special characters.


-- 
__Pascal Bourguignon__                     http://www.informatimago.com/
Until real software engineering is developed, the next best practice
is to develop with a dynamic system that has extreme late binding in
all aspects. The first system to really do this in an important way
is Lisp. -- Alan Kay

Re: Word Boundary problem with regex

[Tim X]

Tim Johnson <tim@johnsons-web.com> writes:

> In case of word wrapping the text between (but not including) the lines
> of asterisks should be on one line:
> 
> I am using the following expression
> *******************************************************************************
> \\([^][ \t\r\n{}()]+\\):[ ]*\\(d\\(ef\\|oes\\)\\|func\\(tion\\)\\|has\\|sub?\\)
> *******************************************************************************
> 
> To colorize the following words: "def" "does" "func" "function" "has"
> "sub" - which define subroutines.
> 
> When I type the following:  test: def[val][print val], "def" is
> colorized properly. One would exect that adding a letter to "def" would
> turn off the target color, but does not. This suggests to me that
> I have not properly defined the word boundary in the expression above.
> 
> Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong?
> 
> FYI: This is for the rebol programming language (www.rebol.com), it
>      should be noted that in lispish fashion, a subroutine is an
>      expression, not an immutable control structure.
> 
> thanks
> tim
> 
> -- 
> Tim Johnson <tim@johnsons-web.com>
>       http://www.alaska-internet-solutions.com

I'm not entirely clear on exactly what it is your trying to match, but
would recommend having a look at regexp-opt as it is particularly
useful for defining regexp for font-locking. A reasonably clear
example of its use can be found in sql.el - the sql-mode which comes
bundled with emacs. 

HTH

Tim

,----[ C-h f regexp-opt RET ]
| regexp-opt is a compiled Lisp function in `regexp-opt'.
| (regexp-opt STRINGS &optional PAREN)
| 
| Return a regexp to match a string in STRINGS.
| Each string should be unique in STRINGS and should not contain any regexps,
| quoted or not.  If optional PAREN is non-nil, ensure that the returned regexp
| is enclosed by at least one regexp grouping construct.
| The returned regexp is typically more efficient than the equivalent regexp:
| 
|  (let ((open (if PAREN "\\(" "")) (close (if PAREN "\\)" "")))
|    (concat open (mapconcat 'regexp-quote STRINGS "\\|") close))
| 
| If PAREN is `words', then the resulting regexp is additionally surrounded
| by \< and \>.
`----

-- 
Tim Cross
The e-mail address on this message is FALSE (obviously!). My real e-mail is
to a company in Australia called rapttech and my login is tcross - if you 
really need to send mail, you should be able to work it out!

Re: Word Boundary problem with regex

[Tim Johnson]

* Tim X <timx@spamto.devnul.com> [050606 01:22]:
> 
> I'm not entirely clear on exactly what it is your trying to match, but
> would recommend having a look at regexp-opt as it is particularly
> useful for defining regexp for font-locking. A reasonably clear
> example of its use can be found in sql.el - the sql-mode which comes
> bundled with emacs. 
> 
> HTH
> 
> Tim
> 
> ,----[ C-h f regexp-opt RET ]
> | regexp-opt is a compiled Lisp function in `regexp-opt'.
> | (regexp-opt STRINGS &optional PAREN)
> | 
> | Return a regexp to match a string in STRINGS.
> | Each string should be unique in STRINGS and should not contain any regexps,
> | quoted or not.  If optional PAREN is non-nil, ensure that the returned regexp
> | is enclosed by at least one regexp grouping construct.
> | The returned regexp is typically more efficient than the equivalent regexp:
> | 
> |  (let ((open (if PAREN "\\(" "")) (close (if PAREN "\\)" "")))
> |    (concat open (mapconcat 'regexp-quote STRINGS "\\|") close))
> | 
> | If PAREN is `words', then the resulting regexp is additionally surrounded
> | by \< and \>.
> `----

     Thanks Tim (see the reply to this thread from Pascal)
     Your tip on using regexp-opt will be very helpful for
     this regex noob.

     cheers
     tim
-- 
Tim Johnson <tim@johnsons-web.com>
      http://www.alaska-internet-solutions.com