"Regular expressions are a method of defining string sets" - Tyberius Prime
That means that a regular expression could say 'Ever string starting with an 'B' and ending in a 'N'... or every string Starting with 'Ba', followed by 1 to n 'na'... ie. 'banan', 'ban','bananana'.
For this the commonly used 'perl style regular expressions' (see php manual entry of same name) establish a somewhat cryptic, but powerfull syntax.
Most characters just mean 'this character'. There are a few 'special' characters, that need to be escaped with a backslash () if you want to have them have their 'character meaning'.
Special Characters:
. - any character (but usually not including a newline)
+ - one or more of the preceding pattern
* - zero or more of the preceding pattern
(maybe I should first explain what a 'pattern' is?)
sorry, being continously interrupted... I'll finish it off later. Or maybe someone else will.
--Tyberius Prime
Emperor: We already have a regular expressions FAQ entry and it would seem to make sense to add this kind of thing to a more general FAQ:
_____________________________ Tyberius Prime: Sure, move it around, or I'll move it later. seems the earlier faq was not where I looked for it. Oh well. Wait, know I remember! I wanted to write a regular expressions with php quick tutorial... your call where we put the subtopic of this one.
