Objective-C

Regular Expression with Named Capture Groups

See more Regular Expressions Examples

Demonstrates regular expressions with named capture groups.

See the sample code below.

Note: Chilkat uses PCRE2. See PCRE2 Regular Expressions
Also see: PCRE2 Performance

In PCRE2, named capture groups allow you to assign a name to a capturing group, making it easier to reference by name instead of number.

Syntax

(?<name>pattern)

or

(?'name'pattern)

Example

(?<first>\w+)\s+(?<last>\w+)

Applied to:

"John Smith"

Produces:

• first: John
• last: Smith

Objective-C

#import <NSString.h>
#import <CkoStringBuilder.h>
#import <CkoJsonObject.h>

BOOL success = NO;

NSString *subject = @"John Smith";
NSString *pattern = @"(?<first>\\w+)\\s+(?<last>\\w+)";

CkoStringBuilder *sb = [[CkoStringBuilder alloc] init];
[sb Append: subject];

CkoJsonObject *json = [[CkoJsonObject alloc] init];
json.EmitCompact = NO;

int timeoutMs = 2000;
int numMatches = [[sb RegexMatch: pattern json: json timeoutMs: [NSNumber numberWithInt: timeoutMs]] intValue];
if (numMatches < 0) {
    //  Probably an error in the regular expression.
    //  Suggestion: Use AI to help create and/or diagnose regular expressions.
    NSLog(@"%@",sb.LastErrorText);
    return;
}

//  Examine the matches:
NSLog(@"%@",[json Emit]);

//  Here is the JSON showing the matches.
//  Important:  Capture group 0 always contains the entire match — that is, the portion of the input string that matches the full regular expression.

//  {
//    "named": {
//      "first": 1,
//      "last": 2
//    },
//    "match": [
//      {
//        "group": [
//          {
//            "cap": "John Smith",
//            "idx": 0,
//            "len": 10
//          },
//          {
//            "cap": "John",
//            "idx": 0,
//            "len": 4
//          },
//          {
//            "cap": "Smith",
//            "idx": 5,
//            "len": 5
//          }
//        ]
//      }
//    ]
//  }

//  The capture group index is obtained by looking up the name in the JSON result.
//  For example:

json.I = [json IntOf: @"named.first"];
NSLog(@"%@%@",@"first: ",[json StringOf: @"match[0].group[i].cap"]);

json.I = [json IntOf: @"named.last"];
NSLog(@"%@%@",@"last: ",[json StringOf: @"match[0].group[i].cap"]);

//  Output is: 

//  first: John
//  last: Smith