MagicExpression

Regular expression made simple in .Net

MagicExpression for muggles

varmagicWand=Magex.New();magicWand.Character('-').Repeat.AtMostOnce().CharacterIn(Characters.Numeral).Repeat.Any().Character('.').CharacterIn(Characters.Numeral).Repeat.AtLeastOnce();// Creates a regex corresponding to// -?[0-9]*\.[0-9]+varfloatingPointNumberDetector=newRegex(magicWand.Expression);// Will match "1.234", "-1.234", "0.0", ".01"// Will not match "0" "1,234", "0x234", "#1a4f66"

Add content to the MagicExpression

Characters

All of these functions are escaping special chars.

• Character() matches any character
• Character(char) matches the given character
• CharacterIn(params char[]) matches any character in the list
• CharacterIn(string) matches any character in the list
• CharacterIn(Characters, string) matches any character in the list
• CharacterIn(Characters params char[]) matches any character in the list
• CharacterNotIn(params char[]) matches any character not in the list
• CharacterNotIn(string) matches any character not in the list
• CharacterNotIn(Characters, string) matches any character not in the list
• CharacterNotIn(Characters params char[]) matches any character not in the list

Characters is an enumeration of flags, allowing you to add special characters to the list of matched characters.

Strings

• String(string) matches the given string, escaping special chars

Repeat last element

Some content can be repeated. For this content, you can use the Repeat property and specify cardinality.

• Repeat.Any() will match any number of repetitions, including 0
• Repeat.Once() default behavior
• Repeat.Times(uint)
• Repeat.Between(uint, uint)
• Repeat.AtLeastOnce()
• Repeat.AtMostOnce()

Groups, captures and backreferences

Usage:

varmagicWand=Magex.New();varnotSoMagicWand=Magex.New();// You can use sub expressions, created before// or create them in placemagicWand.Group(notSoMagicWand.Character('a'));magicWand.Group(Magex.New().Character('a'));// Or use lambdasmagicWand.Group(x =>x.Character('a'));magicWand=Magex.New();// Reference a previous capture// Will match something like <strong>hello world</strong> (but please don't parse HTML with Magex in real life)magicWand.Character('<').CaptureAs("tag", x =>x.CharacterNotIn('>').Repeat.AtLeastOnce()).Character('>').Character().Repeat.Any().Lazy().String("</").BackReference("tag").Character('>');varbadHtmlTagDetector=newRegex(magicWand.Expression);// Will match "<strong>hello world</strong>", "<h1>A title</h1>"// Will not match "<h1>A tag mismatch</strong>"

• Group(IExpressionElement) Non capturing group
• Group(Action<IMagex>) Non capturing group defined with a lambda
• Capture(IExpressionElement) Indexed capture
• Capture(Action<IMagex>) Indexed capture defined with a lambda
• CaptureAs(string, IExpressionElement) Named capture
• CaptureAs(string, Action<IMagex>) Named capture defined with a lambda
• BackReference(string) references a named capture
• BackReference(uint) references an indexed capture

Alternatives

Usage

varmagicWand=Magex.New();// With subexpressionsmagicWand.Alternative(Magex.New().Character('a'),Magex.New().Character('b'));varnotSoMagicWand=Magex.New();// With lambdasnotSoMagicWand.Alternative(
x =>x.Character('a'),
x =>x.Character('b'));varalternativeDetector=newRegex(notSoMagicWand.Expression);// Will match "a", "b"// Will not match "c"

• Alternative(params IExpressionElement[]) Matches the string if it corresponds to one alternative
• Alternative(params Action<IMagex>[]) Same thing with

Laziness

// The group will match the smallest ensemble possible, e.g. "<em>" and "</em>"varlazyMagicWand=Magex.New().Character('<').Group(x =>x.Character().Repeat.Any().Lazy()).Character('>');// The group will match the larges ensemble possible, e.g. the whole "<em>something</em>"vargreedyMagicWand=Magex.New().Character('<').Group(x =>x.Character().Repeat.Any()).Character('>');

• Lazy() Makes the detection lazy instead of greedy (default)

Predefined Expressions

Usage:

varmagicWand=Magex.New();// Produces an expression of type (?<![1-9])([0-9]|[1-4][0-2])(?![0-9])magicWand.Builder.NumericRange(0,42);vardetector=newRegex(magicWand.Expression);// Will match "0", "9", "20", "42"// Will not match "43", "52"

• 'Literal(string)' inserts a regular expression

License

Licensed under MIT License, Copyright 2014 Guillaume Gautreau, Timothée Bourguignon