Name

RegExp.Pattern Property

Data Subtype

String

Description

Contains a pattern string that defines the substring to be found in a search string.

Rules at a Glance

The following table defines the meaning of the individual characters that can be included in the pattern string. The table in the “Programming Tips & Gotchas” section lists a pattern string using each symbol and shows the results returned by the Execute method.

Symbol

Description

\

Marks the next character as either a special character (such as \n for the newline character) or as a literal (if that character otherwise has special meaning in a pattern search string). The special characters are:

\f: form feed character

\n: newline character

\r: carriage return character

\t: tab character

\v: vertical tab character

^

Matches the beginning of input.

$

Matches the end of input.

*

Matches the preceding character zero or more times.

+

Matches the preceding character one or more times.

?

Matches the preceding character zero or one time.

.

Matches any single character except a newline character.

( )

Defines a subexpression within the larger subexpression. A subexpression:

  • Overrides the order of precedence used in evaluating pattern strings

  • Can be referenced again in the pattern string. To insert the result of the subexpression later in the pattern string, reference it by its one-based ordinal position among subexpressions, preceded by the backslash symbol (e.g., \1). See the example using the \num ...

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