Learning to Program

Ranges

There is a better way! With the yearPattern, we matched any digit from 0 to 9 using [0-9], which is way easier than typing out [0123456789], although they both do the same thing. Within brackets, a dash between two characters is called a range. Ranges are most commonly used for ranges of numbers and letters. Ranges on other characters can be quite confusing, and I don’t recommend using them. You can match any upper- or lowercase letter in the English alphabet using [a-zA-Z]. That is much better (and you don’t have to worry that you missed one of the letters). Ranges don’t have to start with 0 or A, and they don’t have to end with 9 or Z. If you want to match only letters in the second half of the alphabet, you can use [n-z], for instance. ...