comparison lispref/searching.texi @ 22252:40089afa2b1d

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Nested repetition operators can be extremely slow if they specify
backtracking loops.  For example, it could take hours for the regular
expression @samp{\(x+y*\)*a} to try to match the sequence
@samp{xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxz}, before it ultimately fails.
The slowness is because Emacs must try each imaginable way of grouping
the 35 @samp{x}'s before concluding that none of them can work.  To make
sure your regular expressions run fast, check nested repetitions
carefully.

@item @samp{+}
@cindex @samp{+} in regexp

(including the empty string), from which it follows that @samp{c[ad]*r}
matches @samp{cr}, @samp{car}, @samp{cdr}, @samp{caddaar}, etc.

You can also include character ranges in a character alternative, by
writing the starting and ending characters with a @samp{-} between them.
Thus, @samp{[a-z]} matches any lower-case ASCII letter.  Ranges may be
intermixed freely with individual characters, as in @samp{[a-z$%.]},
which matches any lower case ASCII letter or @samp{$}, @samp{%} or
period.
 
You cannot always match all non-@sc{ASCII} characters with the regular
expression @samp{[\200-\377]}.  This works when searching a unibyte
buffer or string (@pxref{Text Representations}), but not in a multibyte

above octal 0377.  However, the regular expression @samp{[^\000-\177]}
does match all non-@sc{ASCII} characters, in both multibyte and unibyte
representations, because only the @sc{ASCII} characters are excluded.

The beginning and end of a range must be in the same character set
(@pxref{Character Sets}).  Thus, @samp{[a-\x8c0]} is invalid because
@samp{a} is in the @sc{ASCII} character set but the character 0x8c0
(@samp{A} with grave accent) is in the Emacs character set for Latin-1.

Note that the usual regexp special characters are not special inside a
character alternative.  A completely different set of characters are
special inside character alternatives: @samp{]}, @samp{-} and @samp{^}.

@end example

  You can save and restore the match data with @code{save-match-data}:

@defmac save-match-data body@dots{}
This special form executes @var{body}, saving and restoring the match
data around it.
@end defmac

  You could use @code{set-match-data} together with @code{match-data} to
imitate the effect of the special form @code{save-match-data}.  Here is

22252:40089afa2b1d

Nested repetition operators can be extremely slow if they specify
backtracking loops.  For example, it could take hours for the regular
expression @samp{\(x+y*\)*a} to try to match the sequence
@samp{xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxz}, before it ultimately fails.
The slowness is because Emacs must try each imaginable way of grouping
the 35 @samp{x}s before concluding that none of them can work.  To make
sure your regular expressions run fast, check nested repetitions
carefully.

@item @samp{+}
@cindex @samp{+} in regexp

(including the empty string), from which it follows that @samp{c[ad]*r}
matches @samp{cr}, @samp{car}, @samp{cdr}, @samp{caddaar}, etc.

You can also include character ranges in a character alternative, by
writing the starting and ending characters with a @samp{-} between them.
Thus, @samp{[a-z]} matches any lower-case @sc{ASCII} letter.  Ranges may be
intermixed freely with individual characters, as in @samp{[a-z$%.]},
which matches any lower case @sc{ASCII} letter or @samp{$}, @samp{%} or
period.
 
You cannot always match all non-@sc{ASCII} characters with the regular
expression @samp{[\200-\377]}.  This works when searching a unibyte
buffer or string (@pxref{Text Representations}), but not in a multibyte

above octal 0377.  However, the regular expression @samp{[^\000-\177]}
does match all non-@sc{ASCII} characters, in both multibyte and unibyte
representations, because only the @sc{ASCII} characters are excluded.

The beginning and end of a range must be in the same character set
(@pxref{Character Sets}).  Thus, @samp{[a-\x8e0]} is invalid because
@samp{a} is in the @sc{ASCII} character set but the character 0x8e0
(@samp{a} with grave accent) is in the Emacs character set for Latin-1.

Note that the usual regexp special characters are not special inside a
character alternative.  A completely different set of characters are
special inside character alternatives: @samp{]}, @samp{-} and @samp{^}.

@end example

  You can save and restore the match data with @code{save-match-data}:

@defmac save-match-data body@dots{}
This macro executes @var{body}, saving and restoring the match
data around it.
@end defmac

  You could use @code{set-match-data} together with @code{match-data} to
imitate the effect of the special form @code{save-match-data}.  Here is