Regex in StringSearcher

@aviveiro Don't forget that in the case of simple situations such as dealing with value delimited strings, there is also AttributeSplitter.

(?<=\b)D(?=\b)

@takashi: Excellent answer. I am still not fully familiar with the power of \b.

Just to note: In 'normal' RegEx you indeed need the lookahead and lookbehind assertions. But in the StringSearcher, you don't need them, as it will capture all instances, and \b by definition captures nothing, so you just use

\bD\b

and specify the first list in the Advanced section.

(?<=\b)D(?=\b)

@arnold_bijlsma, you are right. Lookbehind and lookahead are't essential here. Thanks for pointing it out.

@takashi

@aviveiro

@arnold_bijlsma

word boundary \\b represents all non word characters so \\bD\\b matches the string, because it matches some part(s).

Following is not correct to say the least:

In 'normal' RegEx you indeed need the lookahead and lookbehind assertions

To capture an asertion you need to enclose it in braces: \\b(D)\\b

(of course there is a non-capturing version (?:) will cap but not report.

Contrary to popular believe \\b is an (zero length)assertion. So if you enclose it in braces, it will be grabbed. Same goes for begining, end.

A regexp result always shows the enire string if grepped. The All Matches List Name.

To get the indvidual captured D's you will need to enclose it in braces and use Subexpression Matches List Name.

Furthermore, there are not many flavors hat use lookbehind. Python's version does, which will please you guys i guess.

there is a site that shows all flavors and their reaches.

Lookbehind can be emulated by lookahead and some more regexp fiddling.

Of course it may have changed since last i read on it.

Read up on the matter: Jan Goyvaerts work is awesomely suited for that. (see RegeX Buddy. His document is there) But there are plenty good ones.

The key thing is that for the RegEx implementation in the StringSearcher you don't need the lookahead/-behind assertions nor any grouping brackets to capture both instances of the single letter D in the test string.