rexMagic

rexMagic( 
[ g_state ] 
) 
=> t / nil

Description

Turns on or off the special interpretation associated with the meta-characters in regular expressions.

By default the meta-characters (^, $, *, +, \, [, ], etc.) in a regular expression are interpreted specially. However, this “magic” can be explicitly turned off and on programmatically by this function. If no argument is given, the current setting is returned. Users of vi will recognize this as equivalent to the set magic/set nomagic commands.

Arguments

g_state

nil turns off the magic of the meta-characters. Anything else turns on the magic interpretation.

Value Returned

t	The current setting.
nil	The given argument.

Examples

rexCompile( "^[0-9]+" )           
=> t

rexExecute( "123abc" )            
=> t

rexSubstitute( "got: \\0")        
=> "got: 123"

rexMagic( nil )                   
=> nil

rexCompile( "^[0-9]+" )            
=> t      recompile w/o magic

rexExecute( "123abc" )            
=> nil

rexExecute( "**^[0-9]+!**")       
=> t

rexSubstitute( "got: \\0")        
=> "got: \\0"

rexMagic( t )
=> t

rexSubstitute( "got: \\0")        
=> "got: ^[0-9]+"

rexMagic(nil) ;; switch off
rexSubstitute("[&]")
=> "[&]"

Related Topics

String Functions

rexCompile

rexSubstitute

rexReplace

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