jEdit 4.3pre5 and later uses regular expressions from java.util.regex.Pattern to implement inexact search and replace. Click there to see a complete reference guide to all supported meta-characters.
A regular expression consists of a string where some characters are given special meaning with regard to pattern matching.
Inside XML files (such as Jedit mode files), it is important that you escape XML special characters, such as &, <, >, etc. You can use the XML plugin's "characters to entities" to perform this mapping.
Java strings are always parsed by java before they are processed by the regular expression engine, so you must make sure that backslashes are escaped by an extra backslash (\\
)
Within a regular expression, the following characters have special meaning:
^
matches at the beginning of a line
$
matches at the end of a line
\b
matches at a word break
\B
matches at a non-word break
\b
matches at a word boundary
.
matches any single character
\d
matches any decimal digit
\D
matches any non-digit
\n
matches the newline character
\s
matches any whitespace character
\S
matches any non-whitespace character
\t
matches a horizontal tab character
\w
matches any word (alphanumeric) character
\W
matches any non-word (alphanumeric)
character
\\
matches the backslash
(“\”) character
[
matches
any character in
the set abc
]a
, b
or
c
[^
matches
any character not
in the set abc
]a
, b
or
c
[
matches
any character in the
range a-z
]a
to z
, inclusive.
A leading or trailing dash will be interpreted literally
(
matches
whatever the expression
abc
)abc
would match, and saves it as a subexpression.
Also used for grouping
(?:
pure
grouping operator, does not
save contents...
)
(?#
embedded
comment, ignored by engine...
)
(?=
positive
lookahead; the regular expression will match if the text in the brackets
matches, but that text will not be considered part of the match...
)
(?!
negative
lookahead; the regular expression will match if the text in the brackets
does not
match, and that text will not be considered part of the match...
)
\
where 0 <
n
n
< 10,
matches the same thing the n
th
subexpression matched. Can only be used in the search string
$
where 0 <
n
n
< 10,
substituted with the text matched by the n
th
subexpression. Can only be used in the replacement string
matches whatever the expression a
|b
a
would match, or whatever
the expression b
would match.
These symbols operate on the previous atomic expression.
?
matches the preceding expression or the
null string
*
matches the null string or any number of repetitions
of the preceding expression
+
matches one or more repetitions of the preceding
expression
{
matches exactly
m
}m
repetitions of the one-character expression
{
matches between
m
,n
}m
and n
repetitions of the preceding
expression, inclusive
{
matches
m
,}m
or more
repetitions of the preceding expression
If a repeating operator (above) is immediately followed by a
?
, the repeating operator will stop at the smallest
number of repetitions that can complete the rest of the match.