Re: bug in elisp... or in elisper???

[Tim X <timx@nospam.dev.null>]

ken <gebser@mousecar.com> writes:

> Fellow elispers,
>
> Something seems to be amiss in the search syntax here:
>
>  (setq aname-re-str
> "<a\\([\s-\\|\n]+?\\)name=\"\\(.*?\\)\"\\([\s-\\|\n]*?\\)>\\(\\(.\\|\n\\)*?\\)</a\\(\\(
> \\|\t\\|\n\\)*?\\)>" )
>
> ;;Here's a function to use the above RE and return diagnostics:
>
> (defun test-aname-search ()
>   (interactive)
>   (re-search-forward aname-re-str)
>   (message "1: \"%s\" 2: \"%s\" 3: \"%s\" 4: \"%s\" 5: \"%s\" 6: \"%s\"
> 7: \"%s\" 8: \"%s\""
> 	   (match-string 1)
> 	   (match-string 2)
> 	   (match-string 3)
> 	   (match-string 4)
> 	   (match-string 5)
> 	   (match-string 6)
> 	   (match-string 7)
> 	   (match-string 8)))
>
>
> Here are some strings to search on:
>
> <h3><a name="thisname">Any Text--
> Hot Stuff</a></h3>
>
> <h1
> class="title"
>><a
> name="heres-a-name"
>>
> the</a
>></h1
>>
>
> <h3><a name="duplicate">Any Text--
> Hot Crud</a></h3>
>
>
> The problem is that the 5th match-string should be either empty or
> whitespace.  But it consistently contains the last character of of the
> 4th match-string.  And these two matches are separated by the literal
> character string, "</a"!!  What's up with this?
>
>
> Wishing I hadn't quit beer,
> ken

I don't think your re is matching what you think it is. Strong recommend
you try using re-builder as this will give you a visual representation
of what your re is matching (with different colours representing the
various match groups).

Tim

-- 
tcross (at) rapttech dot com dot au