Week 8 – Regular Expressions and Pattern Matching

I. Literal matching

• In regular expressions, literal matching is the process of matching a specific string of characters. This can be achieved by simply enclosing the desired string in quotes. For example, to match the string “hello” exactly, you would use the regular expression /”hello”/.

II. Character classes

• Character classes allow you to match any single character within a specific set of characters. This is useful for matching characters that can vary, such as digits or letters. To use a character class, you can enclose the set of characters in square brackets. For example, to match any digit, you can use the character class [0-9].

III. Standard regular expressions

• Standard regular expressions, also known as “basic” regular expressions, are the most basic form of regular expressions and are supported by most tools and programming languages. They provide a limited set of special characters and syntax for defining patterns.

IV. Extended regular expressions

• Extended regular expressions, also known as “extended” or “modern” regular expressions, offer a more powerful and flexible syntax for defining patterns. They provide additional special characters and syntax not available in standard regular expressions, such as the ability to specify repetitions and alternations more concisely.