You use regular expressions when searching files or directories
using Dreamweaver's Find and Replace features, described in Chapter
8, Working With Text; and with the Site Reports feature described
in Chapter 21. Regular expressions are powerful text queries that
use characters to define search patterns, so that you can constrain
a search to find text strings that contain or do not contain a particular
pattern or character.
| Character |
What it Looks For |
Usage |
|
^
|
Finds the character at the beginning of text input or line of HTML.
|
^H would find "Hello World," but not "Ernest
Hemingway."
|
|
$
|
Finds the character at the end of text input or line of HTML.
|
d$ would find "Hello World," but not "Donald
Duck."
|
|
*
|
Wildcard; finds the string with or without the preceding character.
|
il* would find "it" (no l), "ilk," (one
l), and "illinois" (two ls).
|
|
+
|
Finds the string with the preceding character included at least once.
|
il+ would find "ilk," (one 1), and "illinois"
(two ls), but not "it" (no l).
|
|
?
|
Finds the string with or without one instance of the preceding character.
|
l?sh would find "ticklish," "lush,"
or "toolshed," but not "lavish" or "wish."
|
|
. (period)
|
Finds any single character except newline (line feed).
|
.it would find "hit," "bitter," or "spit.".
|
|
x|y
|
Finds either x or y.
|
clod|cloud would find either "clod" or "cloud."
|
|
{x}
|
Finds exactly x occurrences
of the preceding character.
|
7{2} would find "77" and "10,770," but
not "707."
|
|
{x,y}
|
Finds at least n and no
more than m occurrences of the preceding character. |
0{1,3}would find "10," "100," or "1,000,"
and it would also find "100000" based on the first three 000s.
|
|
[xyz]
|
Finds any of a range of characters as specified. Type the characters
[12345] or a range using a hyphen [1-5].
|
[x-z]would
find "lox," "yellow," and "bozo."
|
|
[^xyz]
|
Finds ny character not specified. . Type the characters [^12345] or a
range using a hyphen [^1-5].
|
[^1-5] would find "72" but not "44."
|
|
\b
|
Finds the character preceded or followed by a word boundary (such as
a space or carriage return).
|
\by
would find "yellow' or "day," but not "mayo."
|
|
\B
|
Finds the character preceded or followed by a non-word boundary
|
\By would not find "yellow" or "day,"
but it would find "mayo" or "Layla."
|
|
\d
|
Finds any digit character. Equivalent to [0-9].
|
\d would find "OU812" or "Route66."
|
|
\D
|
Finds any non-digit character. Equivalent to [^0-9].
|
\D would find "976CLOD" or "401K."
|
|
\f
|
Form feed. (Nonprinting character; may show up in HTML as a block.)
|
Useful for files converted from word-processed or desktop-published documents.
|
|
\n
|
Line feed. (Nonprinting character; may show up in HTML as a block.)
|
Useful for files converted from word-processed or desktop-published documents.
|
|
\r
|
Carriage return. (Nonprinting character; may show up in HTML as a block.)
|
Useful for files converted from word-processed or desktop-published documents.
|
|
\s
|
Finds any single whitespace character, including space, tab, form feed,
or line feed. |
\stop would find "tube top," but not "laptop."
|
|
\S
|
Finds any single non-whitespace character.
|
\Stop would find "laptop," but not "tube
top."
|
|
\t
|
Finds tabs.
|
Useful for files converted from word-processed or desktop-published documents.
|
|
\w
|
Finds any alphanumeric character, including underscore.
|
1\w* would find "1B"
or "1oz."
|
| \W |
Finds ny non-alphanumeric character, such as & or %. |
\W would find the * in
"Booz*Allen" or the @ in "shop@home." |
|
\
|
Escape sequence for finding one of these expression characters.
|
To find ?. search for
\?.
|