Regular expressions library

From cppreference.com
< cpp
Defined in header <regex>

The regular expressions library provides a class that represents regular expressions, which are a kind of mini-language used to perform pattern matching within strings.

Also provided in the regular expressions library are utility classes that provide support for various algorithms, iterators, exceptions, and type traits.

Contents

[edit] Main classes

These classes encapsulate a regular expression and the results of matching a regular expression within a target sequence of characters.

(C++11)
regular expression object
(class template)
(C++11)
identifies the sequence of characters matched by a sub-expression
(class template)
identifies one regular expression match, including all sub-expression matches
(class template)

[edit] Algorithms

These functions are used to apply the regular expression encapsulated in a regex to a target sequence of characters.

(C++11)
attempts to match a regular expression to an entire character sequence
(function template)
(C++11)
attempts to match a regular expression to any part of a character sequence
(function template)
replaces occurrences of a regular expression with formatted replacement text
(function template)

[edit] Iterators

The regex iterators are used to traverse the entire set of regular expression matches found within a sequence.

iterates through all regex matches within a character sequence
(class template)
iterates through the specified sub-expressions within all regex matches in a given string or through unmatched substrings
(class template)

[edit] Exceptions

This class defines the type of objects thrown as exceptions to report errors from the regular expressions library.

(C++11)
reports errors generated by the regular expressions library
(class)

[edit] Traits

The regex traits class is used to encapsulate the localizable aspects of a regex.

(C++11)
provides metainformation about a character type, required by the regex library
(class template)

[edit] Constants

Defined in namespace std::regex_constants
general options controlling regex behavior
(typedef)
options specific to matching
(typedef)
(C++11)
describes different types of matching errors
(typedef)

[edit] Example

#include <iostream>
#include <iterator>
#include <string>
#include <regex>
 
int main()
{
    std::string s = "Some people, when confronted with a problem, think "
        "\"I know, I'll use regular expressions.\" "
        "Now they have two problems.";
 
    std::regex self_regex("REGULAR EXPRESSIONS",
            std::regex_constants::ECMAScript | std::regex_constants::icase);
    if (std::regex_search(s, self_regex)) {
        std::cout << "Text contains the phrase 'regular expressions'\n";
    }   
 
    std::regex word_regex("(\\S+)");
    auto words_begin = 
        std::sregex_iterator(s.begin(), s.end(), word_regex);
    auto words_end = std::sregex_iterator();
 
    std::cout << "Found " 
        << std::distance(words_begin, words_end) 
        << " words\n";
 
    const int N = 6;
    std::cout << "Words greater than " << N << " characters:\n";
    for (std::sregex_iterator i = words_begin; i != words_end; ++i) {
        std::smatch match = *i;    
        std::string match_str = match.str();
        if (match_str.size() > N) {
            std::cout << "  " << match_str << '\n';
        }   
    }   
 
    std::regex long_word_regex("(\\w{7,})");                                                         
    std::string new_s = std::regex_replace(s, long_word_regex, "[$&]");
    std::cout << new_s << '\n';
}

Output:

Text contains the phrase 'regular expressions'
Found 19 words
Words greater than 6 characters:
  people,
  confronted
  problem,
  regular
  expressions."
  problems.
Some people, when [confronted] with a [problem], think 
"I know, I'll use [regular] [expressions]." Now they have two [problems].