Unable to "decrypt" a regular expression.

[RA_SH]

Hi,

    There is a regular expression which i am not able to figure out.

I am supposed to format a CLOB data for which i have the php code. I have come across this regular expression and preg_split function.

I am just not able to understand what this does. Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

preg_split('/\n1[^\n]*\n-/', $str);

.

 

After i find out what s happening here, i have to figure out a way to translate this to java.

 

Thanks!!!!

[silkfire]

This regular expression will split a string wherever it finds the following consecutive match:

 

1. A newline

2. The number '1'

3. All characters until the newline on this row

4. A newline

5. A hypen (-) or minus character

 

So it would match the red in the following string:

 

0+432jkrouwer{€$@£$@^??423

1doeriwep4892304234puopi42348034

-iodfugo89042432purewrwerpuwer

[Psycho]

<< Moving to the Reg Ex forum >>

 

I'd make one clarification to silkfire's explanation. The #3 condition is logically an optional condition since it matches 0 or more characters. In other words, there do not need to be any characters between the number "1" (item #2) and the subsequent newline for item #4. So, the regular expression would also match the following in red:

 

0+432jkrouwer{€$@£$@^??423

1

-iodfugo89042432purewrwerpuwer

 

Also, to simply state the expression in English, it matches any line that line that starts with a 1 followed by a line that starts with a dash.

[Jessica]

After i find out what s happening here, i have to figure out a way to translate this to java.

 

Regular expressions are regular expressions regardless of what language you use them in.

[xyph]

There are different implementations of RegEx.

 

It's more like PCREs are PCREs. Java uses a system with a very, very similar syntax to libpcre, though, so you're pretty safe.