comparison lispref/searching.texi @ 69413:774f0386ba3c

(Regexp Special): Use @samp for regular expressions that are not in Lisp syntax.

69412:ecc36e13e6ba

As a @samp{\} is not special inside a character alternative, it can
never remove the special meaning of @samp{-} or @samp{]}.  So you
should not quote these characters when they have no special meaning
either.  This would not clarify anything, since backslashes can
legitimately precede these characters where they @emph{have} special
meaning, as in @code{[^\]} (@code{"[^\\]"} for Lisp string syntax),
which matches any single character except a backslash.

In practice, most @samp{]} that occur in regular expressions close a
character alternative and hence are special.  However, occasionally a
regular expression may try to match a complex pattern of literal
@samp{[} and @samp{]}.  In such situations, it sometimes may be
necessary to carefully parse the regexp from the start to determine
which square brackets enclose a character alternative.  For example,
@code{[^][]]} consists of the complemented character alternative
@code{[^][]} (which matches any single character that is not a square
bracket), followed by a literal @samp{]}.

The exact rules are that at the beginning of a regexp, @samp{[} is
special and @samp{]} not.  This lasts until the first unquoted
@samp{[}, after which we are in a character alternative; @samp{[} is

69413:774f0386ba3c

As a @samp{\} is not special inside a character alternative, it can
never remove the special meaning of @samp{-} or @samp{]}.  So you
should not quote these characters when they have no special meaning
either.  This would not clarify anything, since backslashes can
legitimately precede these characters where they @emph{have} special
meaning, as in @samp{[^\]} (@code{"[^\\]"} for Lisp string syntax),
which matches any single character except a backslash.

In practice, most @samp{]} that occur in regular expressions close a
character alternative and hence are special.  However, occasionally a
regular expression may try to match a complex pattern of literal
@samp{[} and @samp{]}.  In such situations, it sometimes may be
necessary to carefully parse the regexp from the start to determine
which square brackets enclose a character alternative.  For example,
@samp{[^][]]} consists of the complemented character alternative
@samp{[^][]} (which matches any single character that is not a square
bracket), followed by a literal @samp{]}.

The exact rules are that at the beginning of a regexp, @samp{[} is
special and @samp{]} not.  This lasts until the first unquoted
@samp{[}, after which we are in a character alternative; @samp{[} is