Class Regex

java.lang.Object
org.javagi.base.ProxyInstance
org.gnome.glib.Regex
All Implemented Interfaces:
Proxy
@Generated("org.javagi.JavaGI") public class Regex extends ProxyInstance

A GRegex is a compiled form of a regular expression.

After instantiating a GRegex, you can use its methods to find matches in a string, replace matches within a string, or split the string at matches.

GRegex implements regular expression pattern matching using syntax and semantics (such as character classes, quantifiers, and capture groups) similar to Perl regular expression. See the PCRE documentation for details.

A typical scenario for regex pattern matching is to check if a string matches a pattern. The following statements implement this scenario.

const char *regex_pattern = ".*GLib.*";
const char *string_to_search = "You will love the GLib implementation of regex";
g_autoptr(GMatchInfo) match_info = NULL;
g_autoptr(GRegex) regex = NULL;

regex = g_regex_new (regex_pattern, G_REGEX_DEFAULT, G_REGEX_MATCH_DEFAULT, NULL);
g_assert (regex != NULL);

if (g_regex_match (regex, string_to_search, G_REGEX_MATCH_DEFAULT, &match_info))
  {
    int start_pos, end_pos;
    g_match_info_fetch_pos (match_info, 0, &start_pos, &end_pos);
    g_print ("Match successful! Overall pattern matches bytes %d to %d\\n", start_pos, end_pos);
  }
else
  {
    g_print ("No match!\\n");
  }

The constructor for GRegex includes two sets of bitmapped flags:

  • GLib.RegexCompileFlags—These flags control how GLib compiles the regex. There are options for case sensitivity, multiline, ignoring whitespace, etc.
  • GLib.RegexMatchFlags—These flags control GRegex’s matching behavior, such as anchoring and customizing definitions for newline characters.

Some regex patterns include backslash assertions, such as \\d (digit) or \\D (non-digit). The regex pattern must escape those backslashes. For example, the pattern "\\\\d\\\\D" matches a digit followed by a non-digit.

GLib’s implementation of pattern matching includes a start_position argument for some of the match, replace, and split methods. Specifying a start position provides flexibility when you want to ignore the first n characters of a string, but want to incorporate backslash assertions at character n - 1. For example, a database field contains inconsistent spelling for a job title: healthcare provider and health-care provider. The database manager wants to make the spelling consistent by adding a hyphen when it is missing. The following regex pattern tests for the string care preceded by a non-word boundary character (instead of a hyphen) and followed by a space.

const char *regex_pattern = "\\\\Bcare\\\\s";

An efficient way to match with this pattern is to start examining at start_position 6 in the string healthcare or health-care.

const char *regex_pattern = "\\\\Bcare\\\\s";
const char *string_to_search = "healthcare provider";
g_autoptr(GMatchInfo) match_info = NULL;
g_autoptr(GRegex) regex = NULL;

regex = g_regex_new (
  regex_pattern,
  G_REGEX_DEFAULT,
  G_REGEX_MATCH_DEFAULT,
  NULL);
g_assert (regex != NULL);

g_regex_match_full (
  regex,
  string_to_search,
  -1,
  6, // position of 'c' in the test string.
  G_REGEX_MATCH_DEFAULT,
  &match_info,
  NULL);

The method matchFull(String[], int, Set, Out) (and other methods implementing start_pos) allow for lookback before the start position to determine if the previous character satisfies an assertion.

Unless you set the GLib.RegexCompileFlags.RAW as one of the GRegexCompileFlags, all the strings passed to GRegex methods must be encoded in UTF-8. The lengths and the positions inside the strings are in bytes and not in characters, so, for instance, \\xc3\\xa0 (i.e., à) is two bytes long but it is treated as a single character. If you set G_REGEX_RAW, the strings can be non-valid UTF-8 strings and a byte is treated as a character, so \\xc3\\xa0 is two bytes and two characters long.

Regarding line endings, \\n matches a \\n character, and \\r matches a \\r character. More generally, \\R matches all typical line endings: CR + LF (\\r\\n), LF (linefeed, U+000A, \\n), VT (vertical tab, U+000B, \\v), FF (formfeed, U+000C, \\f), CR (carriage return, U+000D, \\r), NEL (next line, U+0085), LS (line separator, U+2028), and PS (paragraph separator, U+2029).

The behaviour of the dot, circumflex, and dollar metacharacters are affected by newline characters. By default, GRegex matches any newline character matched by \\R. You can limit the matched newline characters by specifying the GLib.RegexMatchFlags.NEWLINE_CR, GLib.RegexMatchFlags.NEWLINE_LF, and GLib.RegexMatchFlags.NEWLINE_CRLF compile options, and with GLib.RegexMatchFlags.NEWLINE_ANY, GLib.RegexMatchFlags.NEWLINE_CR, GLib.RegexMatchFlags.NEWLINE_LF and GLib.RegexMatchFlags.NEWLINE_CRLF match options. These settings are also relevant when compiling a pattern if GLib.RegexCompileFlags.EXTENDED is set and an unescaped # outside a character class is encountered. This indicates a comment that lasts until after the next newline.

Because GRegex does not modify its internal state between creation and destruction, you can create and modify the same GRegex instance from different threads. In contrast, GLib.MatchInfo is not thread safe.

The regular expression low-level functionalities are obtained through the excellent PCRE library written by Philip Hazel.

Since:
2.14

  • Constructor Details

    • Regex

      public Regex(MemorySegment address)
      Create a Regex proxy instance for the provided memory address.
      Parameters:
      address - the memory address of the native object

    • Regex

      public Regex(String pattern, Set<RegexCompileFlags> compileOptions, Set<RegexMatchFlags> matchOptions) throws GErrorException
      Compiles the regular expression to an internal form, and does the initial setup of the GRegex structure.
      Parameters:
      pattern - the regular expression
      compileOptions - compile options for the regular expression, or 0
      matchOptions - match options for the regular expression, or 0
      Throws:
      GErrorException - see GError
      Since:
      2.14

    • Regex

      public Regex(String pattern, RegexCompileFlags compileOptions, RegexMatchFlags... matchOptions) throws GErrorException
      Compiles the regular expression to an internal form, and does the initial setup of the GRegex structure.
      Parameters:
      pattern - the regular expression
      compileOptions - compile options for the regular expression, or 0
      matchOptions - match options for the regular expression, or 0
      Throws:
      GErrorException - see GError
      Since:
      2.14

  • Method Details

    • getType

      public static @Nullable Type getType()
      Get the GType of the Regex class.
      Returns:
      the GType

    • getMemoryLayout

      public static MemoryLayout getMemoryLayout()
      The memory layout of the native struct.
      Returns:
      the memory layout

    • checkReplacement

      public static boolean checkReplacement(String replacement, @Nullable Out<Boolean> hasReferences) throws GErrorException

      Checks whether replacement is a valid replacement string (see g_regex_replace()), i.e. that all escape sequences in it are valid.

      If hasReferences is not null then replacement is checked for pattern references. For instance, replacement text 'foo\n' does not contain references and may be evaluated without information about actual match, but '\0\1' (whole match followed by first subpattern) requires valid GMatchInfo object.

      Parameters:
      replacement - the replacement string
      hasReferences - location to store information about references in replacement or null
      Returns:
      whether replacement is a valid replacement string
      Throws:
      GErrorException - see GError
      Since:
      2.14

    • errorQuark

      public static Quark errorQuark()

    • escapeNul

      public static String escapeNul(String string, int length)

      Escapes the nul characters in string to "\x00". It can be used to compile a regex with embedded nul characters.

      For completeness, length can be -1 for a nul-terminated string. In this case the output string will be of course equal to string.

      Parameters:
      string - the string to escape
      length - the length of string
      Returns:
      a newly-allocated escaped string
      Since:
      2.30

    • escapeString

      public static String escapeString(String string, int length)

      Escapes the special characters used for regular expressions in string, for instance "a.b*c" becomes "a\.b\*c". This function is useful to dynamically generate regular expressions.

      string can contain nul characters that are replaced with "\0", in this case remember to specify the correct length of string in length.

      Parameters:
      string - the string to escape
      length - the length of string, in bytes, or -1 if string is nul-terminated
      Returns:
      a newly-allocated escaped string
      Since:
      2.14

    • matchSimple

      public static boolean matchSimple(String pattern, String string, Set<RegexCompileFlags> compileOptions, Set<RegexMatchFlags> matchOptions)

      Scans for a match in string for pattern.

      This function is equivalent to g_regex_match() but it does not require to compile the pattern with g_regex_new(), avoiding some lines of code when you need just to do a match without extracting substrings, capture counts, and so on.

      If this function is to be called on the same pattern more than once, it's more efficient to compile the pattern once with g_regex_new() and then use g_regex_match().

      Parameters:
      pattern - the regular expression
      string - the string to scan for matches
      compileOptions - compile options for the regular expression, or 0
      matchOptions - match options, or 0
      Returns:
      true if the string matched, false otherwise
      Since:
      2.14

    • matchSimple

      public static boolean matchSimple(String pattern, String string, RegexCompileFlags compileOptions, RegexMatchFlags... matchOptions)

      Scans for a match in string for pattern.

      This function is equivalent to g_regex_match() but it does not require to compile the pattern with g_regex_new(), avoiding some lines of code when you need just to do a match without extracting substrings, capture counts, and so on.

      If this function is to be called on the same pattern more than once, it's more efficient to compile the pattern once with g_regex_new() and then use g_regex_match().

      Parameters:
      pattern - the regular expression
      string - the string to scan for matches
      compileOptions - compile options for the regular expression, or 0
      matchOptions - match options, or 0
      Returns:
      true if the string matched, false otherwise
      Since:
      2.14

    • splitSimple

      public static String[] splitSimple(String pattern, String string, Set<RegexCompileFlags> compileOptions, Set<RegexMatchFlags> matchOptions)

      Breaks the string on the pattern, and returns an array of the tokens. If the pattern contains capturing parentheses, then the text for each of the substrings will also be returned. If the pattern does not match anywhere in the string, then the whole string is returned as the first token.

      This function is equivalent to g_regex_split() but it does not require to compile the pattern with g_regex_new(), avoiding some lines of code when you need just to do a split without extracting substrings, capture counts, and so on.

      If this function is to be called on the same pattern more than once, it's more efficient to compile the pattern once with g_regex_new() and then use g_regex_split().

      As a special case, the result of splitting the empty string "" is an empty vector, not a vector containing a single string. The reason for this special case is that being able to represent an empty vector is typically more useful than consistent handling of empty elements. If you do need to represent empty elements, you'll need to check for the empty string before calling this function.

      A pattern that can match empty strings splits string into separate characters wherever it matches the empty string between characters. For example splitting "ab c" using as a separator "\s*", you will get "a", "b" and "c".

      Parameters:
      pattern - the regular expression
      string - the string to scan for matches
      compileOptions - compile options for the regular expression, or 0
      matchOptions - match options, or 0
      Returns:
      a null-terminated array of strings. Free it using g_strfreev()
      Since:
      2.14

    • splitSimple

      public static String[] splitSimple(String pattern, String string, RegexCompileFlags compileOptions, RegexMatchFlags... matchOptions)

      Breaks the string on the pattern, and returns an array of the tokens. If the pattern contains capturing parentheses, then the text for each of the substrings will also be returned. If the pattern does not match anywhere in the string, then the whole string is returned as the first token.

      This function is equivalent to g_regex_split() but it does not require to compile the pattern with g_regex_new(), avoiding some lines of code when you need just to do a split without extracting substrings, capture counts, and so on.

      If this function is to be called on the same pattern more than once, it's more efficient to compile the pattern once with g_regex_new() and then use g_regex_split().

      As a special case, the result of splitting the empty string "" is an empty vector, not a vector containing a single string. The reason for this special case is that being able to represent an empty vector is typically more useful than consistent handling of empty elements. If you do need to represent empty elements, you'll need to check for the empty string before calling this function.

      A pattern that can match empty strings splits string into separate characters wherever it matches the empty string between characters. For example splitting "ab c" using as a separator "\s*", you will get "a", "b" and "c".

      Parameters:
      pattern - the regular expression
      string - the string to scan for matches
      compileOptions - compile options for the regular expression, or 0
      matchOptions - match options, or 0
      Returns:
      a null-terminated array of strings. Free it using g_strfreev()
      Since:
      2.14

    • getCaptureCount

      public int getCaptureCount()
      Returns the number of capturing subpatterns in the pattern.
      Returns:
      the number of capturing subpatterns
      Since:
      2.14

    • getCompileFlags

      public Set<RegexCompileFlags> getCompileFlags()

      Returns the compile options that this Regex was created with.

      Depending on the version of PCRE that is used, this may or may not include flags set by option expressions such as (?i) found at the top-level within the compiled pattern.

      Returns:
      flags from GRegexCompileFlags
      Since:
      2.26

    • getHasCrOrLf

      public boolean getHasCrOrLf()
      Checks whether the pattern contains explicit CR or LF references.
      Returns:
      true if the pattern contains explicit CR or LF references
      Since:
      2.34

    • getMatchFlags

      public Set<RegexMatchFlags> getMatchFlags()
      Returns the match options that this Regex was created with.
      Returns:
      flags from GRegexMatchFlags
      Since:
      2.26

    • getMaxBackref

      public int getMaxBackref()
      Returns the number of the highest back reference in the pattern, or 0 if the pattern does not contain back references.
      Returns:
      the number of the highest back reference
      Since:
      2.14

    • getMaxLookbehind

      public int getMaxLookbehind()
      Gets the number of characters in the longest lookbehind assertion in the pattern. This information is useful when doing multi-segment matching using the partial matching facilities.
      Returns:
      the number of characters in the longest lookbehind assertion.
      Since:
      2.38

    • getPattern

      public String getPattern()
      Gets the pattern string associated with regex, i.e. a copy of the string passed to g_regex_new().
      Returns:
      the pattern of this Regex
      Since:
      2.14

    • getStringNumber

      public int getStringNumber(String name)
      Retrieves the number of the subexpression named name.
      Parameters:
      name - name of the subexpression
      Returns:
      The number of the subexpression or -1 if name does not exists
      Since:
      2.14

    • match

      public boolean match(String string, Set<RegexMatchFlags> matchOptions, @Nullable Out<MatchInfo> matchInfo)

      Scans for a match in string for the pattern in regex. The matchOptions are combined with the match options specified when the this Regex structure was created, letting you have more flexibility in reusing GRegex structures.

      Unless RegexCompileFlags.RAW is specified in the options, string must be valid UTF-8.

      A GMatchInfo structure, used to get information on the match, is stored in matchInfo if not null. Note that if matchInfo is not null then it is created even if the function returns false, i.e. you must free it regardless if regular expression actually matched.

      To retrieve all the non-overlapping matches of the pattern in string you can use g_match_info_next().

      static void
print_uppercase_words (const gchar *string)
{
  // Print all uppercase-only words.
  GRegex *regex;
  GMatchInfo *match_info;
 
  regex = g_regex_new ("[A-Z]+", G_REGEX_DEFAULT, G_REGEX_MATCH_DEFAULT, NULL);
  g_regex_match (regex, string, 0, &match_info);
  while (g_match_info_matches (match_info))
    {
      gchar *word = g_match_info_fetch (match_info, 0);
      g_print ("Found: %s\\n", word);
      g_free (word);
      g_match_info_next (match_info, NULL);
    }
  g_match_info_free (match_info);
  g_regex_unref (regex);
}

      string is not copied and is used in GMatchInfo internally. If you use any GMatchInfo method (except g_match_info_free()) after freeing or modifying string then the behaviour is undefined.

      Parameters:
      string - the string to scan for matches
      matchOptions - match options
      matchInfo - pointer to location where to store the GMatchInfo, or null if you do not need it
      Returns:
      true is the string matched, false otherwise
      Since:
      2.14

    • match

      public boolean match(String string, RegexMatchFlags matchOptions, @Nullable Out<MatchInfo> matchInfo)

      Scans for a match in string for the pattern in regex. The matchOptions are combined with the match options specified when the this Regex structure was created, letting you have more flexibility in reusing GRegex structures.

      Unless RegexCompileFlags.RAW is specified in the options, string must be valid UTF-8.

      A GMatchInfo structure, used to get information on the match, is stored in matchInfo if not null. Note that if matchInfo is not null then it is created even if the function returns false, i.e. you must free it regardless if regular expression actually matched.

      To retrieve all the non-overlapping matches of the pattern in string you can use g_match_info_next().

      static void
print_uppercase_words (const gchar *string)
{
  // Print all uppercase-only words.
  GRegex *regex;
  GMatchInfo *match_info;
 
  regex = g_regex_new ("[A-Z]+", G_REGEX_DEFAULT, G_REGEX_MATCH_DEFAULT, NULL);
  g_regex_match (regex, string, 0, &match_info);
  while (g_match_info_matches (match_info))
    {
      gchar *word = g_match_info_fetch (match_info, 0);
      g_print ("Found: %s\\n", word);
      g_free (word);
      g_match_info_next (match_info, NULL);
    }
  g_match_info_free (match_info);
  g_regex_unref (regex);
}

      string is not copied and is used in GMatchInfo internally. If you use any GMatchInfo method (except g_match_info_free()) after freeing or modifying string then the behaviour is undefined.

      Parameters:
      string - the string to scan for matches
      matchOptions - match options
      matchInfo - pointer to location where to store the GMatchInfo, or null if you do not need it
      Returns:
      true is the string matched, false otherwise
      Since:
      2.14

    • matchAll

      public boolean matchAll(String string, Set<RegexMatchFlags> matchOptions, @Nullable Out<MatchInfo> matchInfo)

      Using the standard algorithm for regular expression matching only the longest match in the string is retrieved. This function uses a different algorithm so it can retrieve all the possible matches. For more documentation see g_regex_match_all_full().

      A GMatchInfo structure, used to get information on the match, is stored in matchInfo if not null. Note that if matchInfo is not null then it is created even if the function returns false, i.e. you must free it regardless if regular expression actually matched.

      string is not copied and is used in GMatchInfo internally. If you use any GMatchInfo method (except g_match_info_free()) after freeing or modifying string then the behaviour is undefined.

      Parameters:
      string - the string to scan for matches
      matchOptions - match options
      matchInfo - pointer to location where to store the GMatchInfo, or null if you do not need it
      Returns:
      true is the string matched, false otherwise
      Since:
      2.14

    • matchAll

      public boolean matchAll(String string, RegexMatchFlags matchOptions, @Nullable Out<MatchInfo> matchInfo)

      Using the standard algorithm for regular expression matching only the longest match in the string is retrieved. This function uses a different algorithm so it can retrieve all the possible matches. For more documentation see g_regex_match_all_full().

      A GMatchInfo structure, used to get information on the match, is stored in matchInfo if not null. Note that if matchInfo is not null then it is created even if the function returns false, i.e. you must free it regardless if regular expression actually matched.

      string is not copied and is used in GMatchInfo internally. If you use any GMatchInfo method (except g_match_info_free()) after freeing or modifying string then the behaviour is undefined.

      Parameters:
      string - the string to scan for matches
      matchOptions - match options
      matchInfo - pointer to location where to store the GMatchInfo, or null if you do not need it
      Returns:
      true is the string matched, false otherwise
      Since:
      2.14

    • matchAllFull

      public boolean matchAllFull(@Nullable String @Nullable [] string, int startPosition, Set<RegexMatchFlags> matchOptions, @Nullable Out<MatchInfo> matchInfo) throws GErrorException

      Using the standard algorithm for regular expression matching only the longest match in the string is retrieved, it is not possible to obtain all the available matches. For instance matching "<a> <b> <c>" against the pattern "<.*>" you get "<a> <b> <c>".

      This function uses a different algorithm (called DFA, i.e. deterministic finite automaton), so it can retrieve all the possible matches, all starting at the same point in the string. For instance matching "<a> <b> <c>" against the pattern "<.*>" you would obtain three matches: "<a> <b> <c>", "<a> <b>" and "<a>".

      The number of matched strings is retrieved using g_match_info_get_match_count(). To obtain the matched strings and their position you can use, respectively, g_match_info_fetch() and g_match_info_fetch_pos(). Note that the strings are returned in reverse order of length; that is, the longest matching string is given first.

      Note that the DFA algorithm is slower than the standard one and it is not able to capture substrings, so backreferences do not work.

      Setting startPosition differs from just passing over a shortened string and setting RegexMatchFlags.NOTBOL in the case of a pattern that begins with any kind of lookbehind assertion, such as "\b".

      Unless RegexCompileFlags.RAW is specified in the options, string must be valid UTF-8.

      A GMatchInfo structure, used to get information on the match, is stored in matchInfo if not null. Note that if matchInfo is not null then it is created even if the function returns false, i.e. you must free it regardless if regular expression actually matched.

      string is not copied and is used in GMatchInfo internally. If you use any GMatchInfo method (except g_match_info_free()) after freeing or modifying string then the behaviour is undefined.

      Parameters:
      string - the string to scan for matches
      startPosition - starting index of the string to match, in bytes
      matchOptions - match options
      matchInfo - pointer to location where to store the GMatchInfo, or null if you do not need it
      Returns:
      true is the string matched, false otherwise
      Throws:
      GErrorException - see GError
      Since:
      2.14

    • matchAllFull

      public boolean matchAllFull(@Nullable String @Nullable [] string, int startPosition, RegexMatchFlags matchOptions, @Nullable Out<MatchInfo> matchInfo) throws GErrorException

      Using the standard algorithm for regular expression matching only the longest match in the string is retrieved, it is not possible to obtain all the available matches. For instance matching "<a> <b> <c>" against the pattern "<.*>" you get "<a> <b> <c>".

      This function uses a different algorithm (called DFA, i.e. deterministic finite automaton), so it can retrieve all the possible matches, all starting at the same point in the string. For instance matching "<a> <b> <c>" against the pattern "<.*>" you would obtain three matches: "<a> <b> <c>", "<a> <b>" and "<a>".

      The number of matched strings is retrieved using g_match_info_get_match_count(). To obtain the matched strings and their position you can use, respectively, g_match_info_fetch() and g_match_info_fetch_pos(). Note that the strings are returned in reverse order of length; that is, the longest matching string is given first.

      Note that the DFA algorithm is slower than the standard one and it is not able to capture substrings, so backreferences do not work.

      Setting startPosition differs from just passing over a shortened string and setting RegexMatchFlags.NOTBOL in the case of a pattern that begins with any kind of lookbehind assertion, such as "\b".

      Unless RegexCompileFlags.RAW is specified in the options, string must be valid UTF-8.

      A GMatchInfo structure, used to get information on the match, is stored in matchInfo if not null. Note that if matchInfo is not null then it is created even if the function returns false, i.e. you must free it regardless if regular expression actually matched.

      string is not copied and is used in GMatchInfo internally. If you use any GMatchInfo method (except g_match_info_free()) after freeing or modifying string then the behaviour is undefined.

      Parameters:
      string - the string to scan for matches
      startPosition - starting index of the string to match, in bytes
      matchOptions - match options
      matchInfo - pointer to location where to store the GMatchInfo, or null if you do not need it
      Returns:
      true is the string matched, false otherwise
      Throws:
      GErrorException - see GError
      Since:
      2.14

    • matchFull

      public boolean matchFull(@Nullable String @Nullable [] string, int startPosition, Set<RegexMatchFlags> matchOptions, @Nullable Out<MatchInfo> matchInfo) throws GErrorException

      Scans for a match in string for the pattern in regex. The matchOptions are combined with the match options specified when the this Regex structure was created, letting you have more flexibility in reusing GRegex structures.

      Setting startPosition differs from just passing over a shortened string and setting RegexMatchFlags.NOTBOL in the case of a pattern that begins with any kind of lookbehind assertion, such as "\b".

      Unless RegexCompileFlags.RAW is specified in the options, string must be valid UTF-8.

      A GMatchInfo structure, used to get information on the match, is stored in matchInfo if not null. Note that if matchInfo is not null then it is created even if the function returns false, i.e. you must free it regardless if regular expression actually matched.

      string is not copied and is used in GMatchInfo internally. If you use any GMatchInfo method (except g_match_info_free()) after freeing or modifying string then the behaviour is undefined.

      To retrieve all the non-overlapping matches of the pattern in string you can use g_match_info_next().

      static void
print_uppercase_words (const gchar *string)
{
  // Print all uppercase-only words.
  GRegex *regex;
  GMatchInfo *match_info;
  GError *error = NULL;
  
  regex = g_regex_new ("[A-Z]+", G_REGEX_DEFAULT, G_REGEX_MATCH_DEFAULT, NULL);
  g_regex_match_full (regex, string, -1, 0, 0, &match_info, &error);
  while (g_match_info_matches (match_info))
    {
      gchar *word = g_match_info_fetch (match_info, 0);
      g_print ("Found: %s\\n", word);
      g_free (word);
      g_match_info_next (match_info, &error);
    }
  g_match_info_free (match_info);
  g_regex_unref (regex);
  if (error != NULL)
    {
      g_printerr ("Error while matching: %s\\n", error->message);
      g_error_free (error);
    }
}
      Parameters:
      string - the string to scan for matches
      startPosition - starting index of the string to match, in bytes
      matchOptions - match options
      matchInfo - pointer to location where to store the GMatchInfo, or null if you do not need it
      Returns:
      true is the string matched, false otherwise
      Throws:
      GErrorException - see GError
      Since:
      2.14

    • matchFull

      public boolean matchFull(@Nullable String @Nullable [] string, int startPosition, RegexMatchFlags matchOptions, @Nullable Out<MatchInfo> matchInfo) throws GErrorException

      Scans for a match in string for the pattern in regex. The matchOptions are combined with the match options specified when the this Regex structure was created, letting you have more flexibility in reusing GRegex structures.

      Setting startPosition differs from just passing over a shortened string and setting RegexMatchFlags.NOTBOL in the case of a pattern that begins with any kind of lookbehind assertion, such as "\b".

      Unless RegexCompileFlags.RAW is specified in the options, string must be valid UTF-8.

      A GMatchInfo structure, used to get information on the match, is stored in matchInfo if not null. Note that if matchInfo is not null then it is created even if the function returns false, i.e. you must free it regardless if regular expression actually matched.

      string is not copied and is used in GMatchInfo internally. If you use any GMatchInfo method (except g_match_info_free()) after freeing or modifying string then the behaviour is undefined.

      To retrieve all the non-overlapping matches of the pattern in string you can use g_match_info_next().

      static void
print_uppercase_words (const gchar *string)
{
  // Print all uppercase-only words.
  GRegex *regex;
  GMatchInfo *match_info;
  GError *error = NULL;
  
  regex = g_regex_new ("[A-Z]+", G_REGEX_DEFAULT, G_REGEX_MATCH_DEFAULT, NULL);
  g_regex_match_full (regex, string, -1, 0, 0, &match_info, &error);
  while (g_match_info_matches (match_info))
    {
      gchar *word = g_match_info_fetch (match_info, 0);
      g_print ("Found: %s\\n", word);
      g_free (word);
      g_match_info_next (match_info, &error);
    }
  g_match_info_free (match_info);
  g_regex_unref (regex);
  if (error != NULL)
    {
      g_printerr ("Error while matching: %s\\n", error->message);
      g_error_free (error);
    }
}
      Parameters:
      string - the string to scan for matches
      startPosition - starting index of the string to match, in bytes
      matchOptions - match options
      matchInfo - pointer to location where to store the GMatchInfo, or null if you do not need it
      Returns:
      true is the string matched, false otherwise
      Throws:
      GErrorException - see GError
      Since:
      2.14

    • ref

      public Regex ref()
      Increases reference count of this Regex by 1.
      Returns:
      this Regex
      Since:
      2.14

    • replace

      public String replace(@Nullable String @Nullable [] string, int startPosition, String replacement, Set<RegexMatchFlags> matchOptions) throws GErrorException

      Replaces all occurrences of the pattern in this Regex with the replacement text. Backreferences of the form \\number or \\g<number> in the replacement text are interpolated by the number-th captured subexpression of the match, \\g<name> refers to the captured subexpression with the given name. \\0 refers to the complete match, but \\0 followed by a number is the octal representation of a character. To include a literal \\ in the replacement, write \\\\\\\\.

      There are also escapes that changes the case of the following text:

      • \l: Convert to lower case the next character
      • \u: Convert to upper case the next character
      • \L: Convert to lower case till \E
      • \U: Convert to upper case till \E
      • \E: End case modification

      If you do not need to use backreferences use g_regex_replace_literal().

      The replacement string must be UTF-8 encoded even if RegexCompileFlags.RAW was passed to g_regex_new(). If you want to use not UTF-8 encoded strings you can use g_regex_replace_literal().

      Setting startPosition differs from just passing over a shortened string and setting RegexMatchFlags.NOTBOL in the case of a pattern that begins with any kind of lookbehind assertion, such as "\b".

      Parameters:
      string - the string to perform matches against
      startPosition - starting index of the string to match, in bytes
      replacement - text to replace each match with
      matchOptions - options for the match
      Returns:
      a newly allocated string containing the replacements
      Throws:
      GErrorException - see GError
      Since:
      2.14

    • replace

      public String replace(@Nullable String @Nullable [] string, int startPosition, String replacement, RegexMatchFlags... matchOptions) throws GErrorException

      Replaces all occurrences of the pattern in this Regex with the replacement text. Backreferences of the form \\number or \\g<number> in the replacement text are interpolated by the number-th captured subexpression of the match, \\g<name> refers to the captured subexpression with the given name. \\0 refers to the complete match, but \\0 followed by a number is the octal representation of a character. To include a literal \\ in the replacement, write \\\\\\\\.

      There are also escapes that changes the case of the following text:

      • \l: Convert to lower case the next character
      • \u: Convert to upper case the next character
      • \L: Convert to lower case till \E
      • \U: Convert to upper case till \E
      • \E: End case modification

      If you do not need to use backreferences use g_regex_replace_literal().

      The replacement string must be UTF-8 encoded even if RegexCompileFlags.RAW was passed to g_regex_new(). If you want to use not UTF-8 encoded strings you can use g_regex_replace_literal().

      Setting startPosition differs from just passing over a shortened string and setting RegexMatchFlags.NOTBOL in the case of a pattern that begins with any kind of lookbehind assertion, such as "\b".

      Parameters:
      string - the string to perform matches against
      startPosition - starting index of the string to match, in bytes
      replacement - text to replace each match with
      matchOptions - options for the match
      Returns:
      a newly allocated string containing the replacements
      Throws:
      GErrorException - see GError
      Since:
      2.14

    • replaceEval

      public String replaceEval(@Nullable String @Nullable [] string, int startPosition, Set<RegexMatchFlags> matchOptions, @Nullable RegexEvalCallback eval) throws GErrorException

      Replaces occurrences of the pattern in regex with the output of eval for that occurrence.

      Setting startPosition differs from just passing over a shortened string and setting RegexMatchFlags.NOTBOL in the case of a pattern that begins with any kind of lookbehind assertion, such as "\b".

      The following example uses g_regex_replace_eval() to replace multiple strings at once:

      static gboolean
eval_cb (const GMatchInfo *info,
         GString          *res,
         gpointer          data)
{
  gchar *match;
  gchar *r;

   match = g_match_info_fetch (info, 0);
   r = g_hash_table_lookup ((GHashTable *)data, match);
   g_string_append (res, r);
   g_free (match);

   return FALSE;
}

...

GRegex *reg;
GHashTable *h;
gchar *res;

h = g_hash_table_new (g_str_hash, g_str_equal);

g_hash_table_insert (h, "1", "ONE");
g_hash_table_insert (h, "2", "TWO");
g_hash_table_insert (h, "3", "THREE");
g_hash_table_insert (h, "4", "FOUR");

reg = g_regex_new ("1|2|3|4", G_REGEX_DEFAULT, G_REGEX_MATCH_DEFAULT, NULL);
res = g_regex_replace_eval (reg, text, -1, 0, 0, eval_cb, h, NULL);
g_hash_table_destroy (h);

...
      Parameters:
      string - string to perform matches against
      startPosition - starting index of the string to match, in bytes
      matchOptions - options for the match
      eval - a function to call for each match
      Returns:
      a newly allocated string containing the replacements
      Throws:
      GErrorException - see GError
      Since:
      2.14

    • replaceEval

      public String replaceEval(@Nullable String @Nullable [] string, int startPosition, RegexMatchFlags matchOptions, @Nullable RegexEvalCallback eval) throws GErrorException

      Replaces occurrences of the pattern in regex with the output of eval for that occurrence.

      Setting startPosition differs from just passing over a shortened string and setting RegexMatchFlags.NOTBOL in the case of a pattern that begins with any kind of lookbehind assertion, such as "\b".

      The following example uses g_regex_replace_eval() to replace multiple strings at once:

      static gboolean
eval_cb (const GMatchInfo *info,
         GString          *res,
         gpointer          data)
{
  gchar *match;
  gchar *r;

   match = g_match_info_fetch (info, 0);
   r = g_hash_table_lookup ((GHashTable *)data, match);
   g_string_append (res, r);
   g_free (match);

   return FALSE;
}

...

GRegex *reg;
GHashTable *h;
gchar *res;

h = g_hash_table_new (g_str_hash, g_str_equal);

g_hash_table_insert (h, "1", "ONE");
g_hash_table_insert (h, "2", "TWO");
g_hash_table_insert (h, "3", "THREE");
g_hash_table_insert (h, "4", "FOUR");

reg = g_regex_new ("1|2|3|4", G_REGEX_DEFAULT, G_REGEX_MATCH_DEFAULT, NULL);
res = g_regex_replace_eval (reg, text, -1, 0, 0, eval_cb, h, NULL);
g_hash_table_destroy (h);

...
      Parameters:
      string - string to perform matches against
      startPosition - starting index of the string to match, in bytes
      matchOptions - options for the match
      eval - a function to call for each match
      Returns:
      a newly allocated string containing the replacements
      Throws:
      GErrorException - see GError
      Since:
      2.14

    • replaceLiteral

      public String replaceLiteral(@Nullable String @Nullable [] string, int startPosition, String replacement, Set<RegexMatchFlags> matchOptions) throws GErrorException

      Replaces all occurrences of the pattern in this Regex with the replacement text. replacement is replaced literally, to include backreferences use g_regex_replace().

      Setting startPosition differs from just passing over a shortened string and setting RegexMatchFlags.NOTBOL in the case of a pattern that begins with any kind of lookbehind assertion, such as "\b".

      Parameters:
      string - the string to perform matches against
      startPosition - starting index of the string to match, in bytes
      replacement - text to replace each match with
      matchOptions - options for the match
      Returns:
      a newly allocated string containing the replacements
      Throws:
      GErrorException - see GError
      Since:
      2.14

    • replaceLiteral

      public String replaceLiteral(@Nullable String @Nullable [] string, int startPosition, String replacement, RegexMatchFlags... matchOptions) throws GErrorException

      Replaces all occurrences of the pattern in this Regex with the replacement text. replacement is replaced literally, to include backreferences use g_regex_replace().

      Setting startPosition differs from just passing over a shortened string and setting RegexMatchFlags.NOTBOL in the case of a pattern that begins with any kind of lookbehind assertion, such as "\b".

      Parameters:
      string - the string to perform matches against
      startPosition - starting index of the string to match, in bytes
      replacement - text to replace each match with
      matchOptions - options for the match
      Returns:
      a newly allocated string containing the replacements
      Throws:
      GErrorException - see GError
      Since:
      2.14

    • split

      public String[] split(String string, Set<RegexMatchFlags> matchOptions)

      Breaks the string on the pattern, and returns an array of the tokens. If the pattern contains capturing parentheses, then the text for each of the substrings will also be returned. If the pattern does not match anywhere in the string, then the whole string is returned as the first token.

      As a special case, the result of splitting the empty string "" is an empty vector, not a vector containing a single string. The reason for this special case is that being able to represent an empty vector is typically more useful than consistent handling of empty elements. If you do need to represent empty elements, you'll need to check for the empty string before calling this function.

      A pattern that can match empty strings splits string into separate characters wherever it matches the empty string between characters. For example splitting "ab c" using as a separator "\s*", you will get "a", "b" and "c".

      Parameters:
      string - the string to split with the pattern
      matchOptions - match time option flags
      Returns:
      a null-terminated gchar ** array. Free it using g_strfreev()
      Since:
      2.14

    • split

      public String[] split(String string, RegexMatchFlags... matchOptions)

      Breaks the string on the pattern, and returns an array of the tokens. If the pattern contains capturing parentheses, then the text for each of the substrings will also be returned. If the pattern does not match anywhere in the string, then the whole string is returned as the first token.

      As a special case, the result of splitting the empty string "" is an empty vector, not a vector containing a single string. The reason for this special case is that being able to represent an empty vector is typically more useful than consistent handling of empty elements. If you do need to represent empty elements, you'll need to check for the empty string before calling this function.

      A pattern that can match empty strings splits string into separate characters wherever it matches the empty string between characters. For example splitting "ab c" using as a separator "\s*", you will get "a", "b" and "c".

      Parameters:
      string - the string to split with the pattern
      matchOptions - match time option flags
      Returns:
      a null-terminated gchar ** array. Free it using g_strfreev()
      Since:
      2.14

    • splitFull

      public String[] splitFull(@Nullable String @Nullable [] string, int startPosition, Set<RegexMatchFlags> matchOptions, int maxTokens) throws GErrorException

      Breaks the string on the pattern, and returns an array of the tokens. If the pattern contains capturing parentheses, then the text for each of the substrings will also be returned. If the pattern does not match anywhere in the string, then the whole string is returned as the first token.

      As a special case, the result of splitting the empty string "" is an empty vector, not a vector containing a single string. The reason for this special case is that being able to represent an empty vector is typically more useful than consistent handling of empty elements. If you do need to represent empty elements, you'll need to check for the empty string before calling this function.

      A pattern that can match empty strings splits string into separate characters wherever it matches the empty string between characters. For example splitting "ab c" using as a separator "\s*", you will get "a", "b" and "c".

      Setting startPosition differs from just passing over a shortened string and setting RegexMatchFlags.NOTBOL in the case of a pattern that begins with any kind of lookbehind assertion, such as "\b".

      Parameters:
      string - the string to split with the pattern
      startPosition - starting index of the string to match, in bytes
      matchOptions - match time option flags
      maxTokens - the maximum number of tokens to split string into. If this is less than 1, the string is split completely
      Returns:
      a null-terminated gchar ** array. Free it using g_strfreev()
      Throws:
      GErrorException - see GError
      Since:
      2.14

    • splitFull

      public String[] splitFull(@Nullable String @Nullable [] string, int startPosition, RegexMatchFlags matchOptions, int maxTokens) throws GErrorException

      Breaks the string on the pattern, and returns an array of the tokens. If the pattern contains capturing parentheses, then the text for each of the substrings will also be returned. If the pattern does not match anywhere in the string, then the whole string is returned as the first token.

      As a special case, the result of splitting the empty string "" is an empty vector, not a vector containing a single string. The reason for this special case is that being able to represent an empty vector is typically more useful than consistent handling of empty elements. If you do need to represent empty elements, you'll need to check for the empty string before calling this function.

      A pattern that can match empty strings splits string into separate characters wherever it matches the empty string between characters. For example splitting "ab c" using as a separator "\s*", you will get "a", "b" and "c".

      Setting startPosition differs from just passing over a shortened string and setting RegexMatchFlags.NOTBOL in the case of a pattern that begins with any kind of lookbehind assertion, such as "\b".

      Parameters:
      string - the string to split with the pattern
      startPosition - starting index of the string to match, in bytes
      matchOptions - match time option flags
      maxTokens - the maximum number of tokens to split string into. If this is less than 1, the string is split completely
      Returns:
      a null-terminated gchar ** array. Free it using g_strfreev()
      Throws:
      GErrorException - see GError
      Since:
      2.14

    • unref

      public void unref()
      Decreases reference count of this Regex by 1. When reference count drops to zero, it frees all the memory associated with the regex structure.
      Since:
      2.14