Re: [users] OR and AND in regular expressions
Thank you again for your help. But I think I can fix my problem without AND for the moment, after all. I'll remember your trick, however kindest regards 2008/4/13, Harold Fuchs [EMAIL PROTECTED]: On 12/04/2008 17:31, Régis POTELLE wrote: Thank you for your quick answer. Using OR as you tell me may be helpfull. For the AND, I'll see later kindest regards In fact I just thought of a way to do AND but the solution is based on a facility in Writer which may or may not exist in other word processors. As an example, assume you want to find lines containing a and b and c but in any order: 1. Find, using Regular Expressions, .*a.*. Use Find All. This will highlight all the lines containing an a. 2. Select Currently selection only and Find All .*b.*. This will leave highlighted all the lines containing a and b in either order. 3. Keep Current selection only ticked (checked) and Find All .*c.*. Done. Only lines with a and b and c, in any order, will remain highlighted. The problem with this method is that, while it will find abc or bac or bca or ..., it will also find aqwercghjkb which has an a, a b and a c within it. This may not be what you want ... The RE .*a.* means any number of any character followed by an a followed by any number of any character. Here any number includes zero. Of course the a being found can be replaced by any string/RE. snip -- Harold Fuchs London, England Please reply *only* to users@openoffice.org
Re: [users] OR and AND in regular expressions
Thank you for your quick answer. Using OR as you tell me may be helpfull. For the AND, I'll see later kindest regards 2008/4/12, Harold Fuchs [EMAIL PROTECTED]: On 11/04/2008 18:14, Régis POTELLE wrote: Dear Sir, Madam, Openoffice is for me an essential tool . I'm using it every day within the context of my work, especially the macro-programming . Hats off to you for this software ! My question is the one after: Is it possible to use boolean expressions like AND or OR in regular expressions ? And if so, how shall I do it ? The or is represented by a vertical bar. So a|b means a or b and (ab)|(cde)|(xy*) means ab or cde or an x followed by zero or more y's. For single characters you can also say things like [aeiouy] meaning a or e or i or o or u or y or [a-z] meaning any unaccented lower case letter. The and, when sequence is immaterial, is much harder if not impossible :-( So abc means a and b and c but *in that sequence*. If you want to say a and b and c in any sequence then I don't know how to do it. Of course, if there are only a few possibilities then you could or all the possible permutations ; (abc)|(acb)|(bac)|(bca)|(cab)|(cba) but that's not practical in the general case. I don't think even perl (the doyen of REs) can do this. Please note that I'm using OOo 2.4. I'm not sure if the vertical bar is available in previous versions. I thank you in advance Kindest regards P.S: excuse my poor English: I'm a french man... Your English is much better than my French ... -- Harold Fuchs London, England Please reply *only* to users@openoffice.org
Re: [users] OR and AND in regular expressions
On 12/04/2008 17:31, Régis POTELLE wrote: Thank you for your quick answer. Using OR as you tell me may be helpfull. For the AND, I'll see later kindest regards In fact I just thought of a way to do AND but the solution is based on a facility in Writer which may or may not exist in other word processors. As an example, assume you want to find lines containing a and b and c but in any order: 1. Find, using Regular Expressions, .*a.*. Use Find All. This will highlight all the lines containing an a. 2. Select Currently selection only and Find All .*b.*. This will leave highlighted all the lines containing a and b in either order. 3. Keep Current selection only ticked (checked) and Find All .*c.*. Done. Only lines with a and b and c, in any order, will remain highlighted. The problem with this method is that, while it will find abc or bac or bca or ..., it will also find aqwercghjkb which has an a, a b and a c within it. This may not be what you want ... The RE .*a.* means any number of any character followed by an a followed by any number of any character. Here any number includes zero. Of course the a being found can be replaced by any string/RE. snip -- Harold Fuchs London, England Please reply *only* to users@openoffice.org - To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[users] OR and AND in regular expressions
Dear Sir, Madam, Openoffice is for me an essential tool . I'm using it every day within the context of my work, especially the macro-programming . Hats off to you for this software ! My question is the one after: Is it possible to use boolean expressions like AND or OR in regular expressions ? And if so, how shall I do it ? I thank you in advance Kindest regards P.S: excuse my poor English: I'm a french man...
Re: [users] OR and AND in regular expressions
On 11/04/2008 18:14, Régis POTELLE wrote: Dear Sir, Madam, Openoffice is for me an essential tool . I'm using it every day within the context of my work, especially the macro-programming . Hats off to you for this software ! My question is the one after: Is it possible to use boolean expressions like AND or OR in regular expressions ? And if so, how shall I do it ? The or is represented by a vertical bar. So a|b means a or b and (ab)|(cde)|(xy*) means ab or cde or an x followed by zero or more y's. For single characters you can also say things like [aeiouy] meaning a or e or i or o or u or y or [a-z] meaning any unaccented lower case letter. The and, when sequence is immaterial, is much harder if not impossible :-( So abc means a and b and c but *in that sequence*. If you want to say a and b and c in any sequence then I don't know how to do it. Of course, if there are only a few possibilities then you could or all the possible permutations ; (abc)|(acb)|(bac)|(bca)|(cab)|(cba) but that's not practical in the general case. I don't think even perl (the doyen of REs) can do this. Please note that I'm using OOo 2.4. I'm not sure if the vertical bar is available in previous versions. I thank you in advance Kindest regards P.S: excuse my poor English: I'm a french man... Your English is much better than my French ... -- Harold Fuchs London, England Please reply *only* to users@openoffice.org - To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[users] Re: Some difficulty with regular expressions
- Original Message -
From: Richard Detwiler [EMAIL PROTECTED]
I had some trouble getting certain regular expressions to work. Here's an
example, taken from Help:
[:space:] Represents a white space character such as space.
When I try this, I get the message that the search key was not found, even
though there are lots of spaces in the document I was searching.
Hello Richard,
A while ago -- in early February, I think -- there was some activity in
this mailing list regarding searches that involve specs such as [:xxx:],
e.g. [:digit:] or [:space:]. As was then pointed out, useful information
about regular expressions can be found in an article by Garry Knight:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/garryknight/linux/ooregexp.html
My contribution to that discussion was along the lines of what is stated
below. I think you will find that it takes care of your problem.
Ben Winter
- - - - -
A specification like [:xxx:] is used when searching for a _string_ of
objects of a certain type. The part that replaces xxx specifies the _type_
of object one is looking for
(e.g., replacing xxx by digit specifies a decimal digit). By itself, a
specification like[:xxx:] is incomplete; one must also state the _length of
string_ (and that can be done with ? , + , or {k}). Thus
search for [:digit:]? finds the next decimal digit (string of digits, of
length 1)
search for [:digit:]+ finds the next string of decimal digits (of any
length)
search for [:digit:]{2} finds the next string of 2 decimal digits etc
Likewise for [:space:]?, [:space:]+, [:space:]{2} and other such searches.
Apparently [aBc] (without colons) states specific, concrete objects to be
matched, whereas [:xxx:] (with colons) refers to an abstract type. To get a
searchable object, you need to add something to [:xxx:] to make it concrete;
e.g.,
state a length-specification to move from the abstraction _digits_ to
something concrete like 'string of 3 digits'.
However, by my interpretation, a[:digit:]b should not yield any hits - but
it does.
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[users] Issuezilla: Any documentation on regular expressions?
In Issuezilla (http://qa.openoffice.org/issues/query.cgi): I would like to search for issues related to tab stops. If I search for 'tab' as a word/string, I get a gazillion hits that deal with 'table's. I would like to specify that 'tab' must appear as a word by itself, however neither of the regular expression syntaxes I am familiar with ( \tab\ or \btab\b ) do this. A boolean search for 'tab' NOT 'table' is not the same. So, 1) does anyone have any other suggestions[*] for limiting the search to a word (not a substring), and 2) does anyone know where the regular expression syntax supported in Issuezilla is documented? [*] Using 'tab[ ]' helps but may miss something, e.g. if the field ends with 'tab'. Joe - To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [users] Does [:space:] work with regular expressions?
Hi,
the issue is http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=64368 as
Niklas posted. And thank you, kevin, for the very good explanation of
atoms and quantifiers in regular expressions.
Uwe
Andrew Douglas Pitonyak wrote:
An issue already exists for this... :-)
Donald H Locker wrote:
I just tested in 2.0.2 and it is definitely broken. [:space:] does
not match anything by itself, whereas it should match the character
class of whitespaces, as I read it should in the helpfile, and as such
a construct would behave in other RE engines. Ditto [:digit:], which
doesn't match anything, while it should match [0-9] by my reading.
kevin johnston wrote:
In a Regular Expression search, if [:space:] and [:digit:] only work
with + or * or {}, it's a bug.
[:space:] by itself, all alone, should recognize exactly one white
character.
[snip]
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Re: [users] Does [:space:] work with regular expressions?
In a Regular Expression search, if [:space:] and [:digit:] only work
with + or * or {}, it's a bug.
[:space:] by itself, all alone, should recognize exactly one white
character.
Square brackets enclose a character class. A character class is a list
of atoms. An atom is a matchable entity. The only thing the square
brackets do is allow any one of the atoms inside to match at a given
point in a string. And the whole square bracket list is itself an atom
(note: just one atom!), it's just an atom that can match different
target characters at different positions in a target string.
+ and * are quantifiers. A quantifier means how many of.
So an atom (including a square bracket atom) plus a quantifier means
how many of this. But an atom without any quantifier at all ought to
be interpreted as one of this.
I think maybe what Uwe meant was that it is not possible to search for
:space: by itself. This is (almost) true. :space: will not locate a
white character in a target string.
(Without the square brackets, :space: is 7 atoms, a colon, a character
s, a character p, ... all in the exact order listed, and it will match
that literal 7 character sequence in a target string. But that was not
the original intent.)
But :space: inside square brackets is not a 7 character sequence. Square
brackets create a special context in which :space: is recognized as a
shorthand for the list of white characters of the current alphabet, and
the whole list becomes a single atom. And as a valid atom, a quantifier
is allowed but should *not* be required.
Another thing Uwe might have been trying to say is that it is not valid
to quantify a quantifier. This is completely true. It is not valid to
try to match +* for example. This would mean something like any number
of at least one of, except that it's meaningless. A regular expression
can match a count of things, but it's not possible to just match a
count, much less a count of counts. To search for any number of literal
plus characters, you must escape the + character with a backslash:
\+ (but without the quotes). This strips off the quantifier meaning of
the plus character, reverting it temporarily to its literal alphabet
character meaning. Thus, \+* (without the quotes) means any number of
consecutive literal plus characters, \++ (without the quotes) means
at least one consecutive literal plus character, and \+\+ (without
the quotes) means exactly two consecutive literal plus characters.
But [:space:] is not a quantifier, it's an atom, and it is legal, but
not required, to quantify an atom.
When I've written my own book on regular expressions, it will make all
of this crystal clear. ;)
Uwe Fischer wrote:
Andrew Douglas Pitonyak wrote:
What else can I say besides Does [:space:] work with regular
expressions?
I can use regular expressions, but I can not make it find a space
using this syntax, which is documented. I also tested [:digit:], which
does not work for me. [0-9] works just fine, however. In other words,
I can use some regular expressions, just not all. I see no issues for
this. Depending on the answer, I will open an issue.
I am using 2.02 on Linux. I investigated this based on a question here:
http://www.oooforum.org/forum/viewtopic.phtml?p=154379#154379
please use [:space:]+ or [:space:]* as search term.
[:space:] by itself is a regular expression for any white space (look
up Wiki or Google what a white space is).
You cannot search for a regular expression by itself, in the same sense
as you cannot search for something as between 3 and 6 times. You
always must give a parameter what you mean by using the regular expression.
You can find all this in a very short list in Online Help. Be aware that
a complete discussion of regular expressions can fill a book of 500
pages, see amazon.com for that keyword.
Regards
Uwe
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Re: [users] Does [:space:] work with regular expressions?
I just tested in 2.0.2 and it is definitely broken. [:space:] does not
match anything by itself, whereas it should match the character class of
whitespaces, as I read it should in the helpfile, and as such a
construct would behave in other RE engines. Ditto [:digit:], which
doesn't match anything, while it should match [0-9] by my reading.
kevin johnston wrote:
In a Regular Expression search, if [:space:] and [:digit:] only work
with + or * or {}, it's a bug.
[:space:] by itself, all alone, should recognize exactly one white
character.
[snip]
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Re: [users] Does [:space:] work with regular expressions?
An issue already exists for this... :-)
Donald H Locker wrote:
I just tested in 2.0.2 and it is definitely broken. [:space:] does
not match anything by itself, whereas it should match the character
class of whitespaces, as I read it should in the helpfile, and as such
a construct would behave in other RE engines. Ditto [:digit:], which
doesn't match anything, while it should match [0-9] by my reading.
kevin johnston wrote:
In a Regular Expression search, if [:space:] and [:digit:] only work
with + or * or {}, it's a bug.
[:space:] by itself, all alone, should recognize exactly one white
character.
[snip]
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Re: [users] Does [:space:] work with regular expressions?
Andrew Douglas Pitonyak wrote: I can use regular expressions, but I can not make it find a space using this syntax, which is documented. I also tested [:digit:], which does not work for me. [0-9] works just fine, however. In other words, I can use some regular expressions, just not all. I see no issues for this. Depending on the answer, I will open an issue. There's issue 64368. Niklas - To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [users] Does [:space:] work with regular expressions?
Uwe Fischer wrote:
Andrew Douglas Pitonyak wrote:
What else can I say besides Does [:space:] work with regular
expressions?
I can use regular expressions, but I can not make it find a space
using this syntax, which is documented. I also tested [:digit:],
which does not work for me. [0-9] works just fine, however. In other
words, I can use some regular expressions, just not all. I see no
issues for this. Depending on the answer, I will open an issue.
I am using 2.02 on Linux. I investigated this based on a question here:
http://www.oooforum.org/forum/viewtopic.phtml?p=154379#154379
please use [:space:]+ or [:space:]* as search term.
[:space:] by itself is a regular expression for any white space
(look up Wiki or Google what a white space is).
You cannot search for a regular expression by itself, in the same
sense as you cannot search for something as between 3 and 6 times.
You always must give a parameter what you mean by using the regular
expression.
You can find all this in a very short list in Online Help. Be aware
that a complete discussion of regular expressions can fill a book of
500 pages, see amazon.com for that keyword.
Regards
Uwe
OK, that does work for me... I searched for [:digit:]{1}. I have often
considered purchasing the regular expressions book because I have done
some pretty strange regular expressions using things such as look ahead...
What if I want to find anything that is NOT a [:space:]?
--
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My Macro Document: http://www.pitonyak.org/AndrewMacro.odt
My Book: http://www.hentzenwerke.com/catalog/oome.htm
Info: http://www.pitonyak.org/oo.php
See Also: http://documentation.openoffice.org/HOW_TO/index.html
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[users] Does [:space:] work with regular expressions?
What else can I say besides Does [:space:] work with regular expressions? I can use regular expressions, but I can not make it find a space using this syntax, which is documented. I also tested [:digit:], which does not work for me. [0-9] works just fine, however. In other words, I can use some regular expressions, just not all. I see no issues for this. Depending on the answer, I will open an issue. I am using 2.02 on Linux. I investigated this based on a question here: http://www.oooforum.org/forum/viewtopic.phtml?p=154379#154379 -- Andrew Pitonyak My Macro Document: http://www.pitonyak.org/AndrewMacro.odt My Book: http://www.hentzenwerke.com/catalog/oome.htm Info: http://www.pitonyak.org/oo.php See Also: http://documentation.openoffice.org/HOW_TO/index.html - To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [users] Does [:space:] work with regular expressions?
Andrew Douglas Pitonyak wrote: What else can I say besides Does [:space:] work with regular expressions? I can use regular expressions, but I can not make it find a space using this syntax, which is documented. I also tested [:digit:], which does not work for me. [0-9] works just fine, however. In other words, I can use some regular expressions, just not all. I see no issues for this. Depending on the answer, I will open an issue. I am using 2.02 on Linux. I investigated this based on a question here: http://www.oooforum.org/forum/viewtopic.phtml?p=154379#154379 please use [:space:]+ or [:space:]* as search term. [:space:] by itself is a regular expression for any white space (look up Wiki or Google what a white space is). You cannot search for a regular expression by itself, in the same sense as you cannot search for something as between 3 and 6 times. You always must give a parameter what you mean by using the regular expression. You can find all this in a very short list in Online Help. Be aware that a complete discussion of regular expressions can fill a book of 500 pages, see amazon.com for that keyword. Regards Uwe -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Technical Writer StarOffice - Sun Microsystems, Inc. - Hamburg, Germany http://www.sun.com/staroffice http://documentation.openoffice.org/ - To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[users] conditions on fields/section regular expressions
Hi all. I only found the possibility of using regular expression in find/replace and filtering functions. Now I need to make some text to change in a merge-mail process if the value in a db field is of type *999, but i can't find the way to do so. Am I missing something or at the moment this capability in not provided? Thank you. Marco - To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
