matchText | |||||||||||||
Type | function | ||||||||||||
Dictionary | LCS | ||||||||||||
Library | LiveCode Script | ||||||||||||
Syntax |
| ||||||||||||
Summary | Returns true if a regular expression is found in the specified string, false otherwise. | ||||||||||||
Introduced | 1.0 | ||||||||||||
Changes | The regular expression format changed in version 2.0 to use PCRE compatible syntax. | ||||||||||||
OS | mac, windows, linux, ios, android | ||||||||||||
Platforms | desktop, server, mobile | ||||||||||||
Parameters |
| ||||||||||||
Example |
| ||||||||||||
Values |
| ||||||||||||
Related | Keyword: string Property: caseSensitive Command: find, filter Function: matchChunk, value, localNames Control Structure: function Glossary: property, return, variable, value, function call, regular expression, case-sensitive, case-insensitive, function | ||||||||||||
Description | Use the matchText function to check whether a string contains a specified pattern. If the regularExpression includes a pair of parentheses, the substring matching the part of the regular expression inside the parentheses is placed in the first variable in the foundTextVarsList. Additional substrings, matching additional parenthetical expressions within the regularExpression, are placed in additional variables in the foundTextVarsList. The number of parenthetical expressions in the regularExpression should match the number of variables in the foundTextVarsList. If the matchText function returns false, the values of the variables in the foundTextVarsList are not changed. For example, the following matchText function call extracts the user name and email address from a typical email "From" line:
There are two parenthetical expressions in the regularExpression above:"(.*)" and "(.+@.+)". If the function returns true--that is, if the string in myVar matches the regular expression--then the substring of myVar that matches the first of these parenthetical expressions is placed in the variable called userName; the second is placed in the variable userAddress. The string and regularExpression are always case-sensitive, regardless of the setting of the caseSensitive property. (If you need to make a case-insensitive comparison, use "(?i)" at the start of the regularExpression to make the match case-insensitive.)
The matchText and matchChunk functions return the same value, given the same string and regularExpression. The difference between the two is that the matchText function records the text of matched substrings in the optional foundTextVarsList, which the matchChunk function records the character positions of the matched substrings.
|