Ruby

Regular Expression with Named Capture Groups

See more Regular Expressions Examples

Demonstrates regular expressions with named capture groups.

See the sample code below.

Note: Chilkat uses PCRE2. See PCRE2 Regular Expressions
Also see: PCRE2 Performance

In PCRE2, named capture groups allow you to assign a name to a capturing group, making it easier to reference by name instead of number.

Syntax

(?<name>pattern)

or

(?'name'pattern)

Example

(?<first>\w+)\s+(?<last>\w+)

Applied to:

"John Smith"

Produces:

• first: John
• last: Smith

Ruby

require 'chilkat'

success = false

subject = "John Smith"
pattern = "(?<first>\\w+)\\s+(?<last>\\w+)"

sb = Chilkat::CkStringBuilder.new()
sb.Append(subject)

json = Chilkat::CkJsonObject.new()
json.put_EmitCompact(false)

timeoutMs = 2000
numMatches = sb.RegexMatch(pattern,json,timeoutMs)
if (numMatches < 0)
    # Probably an error in the regular expression.
    # Suggestion: Use AI to help create and/or diagnose regular expressions.
    print sb.lastErrorText() + "\n";
    exit
end

# Examine the matches:
print json.emit() + "\n";

# Here is the JSON showing the matches.
# Important:  Capture group 0 always contains the entire match — that is, the portion of the input string that matches the full regular expression.

# {
#   "named": {
#     "first": 1,
#     "last": 2
#   },
#   "match": [
#     {
#       "group": [
#         {
#           "cap": "John Smith",
#           "idx": 0,
#           "len": 10
#         },
#         {
#           "cap": "John",
#           "idx": 0,
#           "len": 4
#         },
#         {
#           "cap": "Smith",
#           "idx": 5,
#           "len": 5
#         }
#       ]
#     }
#   ]
# }

# The capture group index is obtained by looking up the name in the JSON result.
# For example:

json.put_I(json.IntOf("named.first"))
print "first: " + json.stringOf("match[0].group[i].cap") + "\n";

json.put_I(json.IntOf("named.last"))
print "last: " + json.stringOf("match[0].group[i].cap") + "\n";

# Output is: 

# first: John
# last: Smith