eintr: Regexp Search
12 Regular Expression Searches
******************************
Regular expression searches are used extensively in GNU Emacs. The two
functions, ‘forward-sentence’ and ‘forward-paragraph’, illustrate these
searches well. They use regular expressions to find where to move
point. The phrase “regular expression” is often written as “regexp”.
DONTPRINTYET Regular expression searches are described in 
Regular Expression
Search (emacs)Regexp Search, as well as in *note(elisp)Regular
DONTPRINTYET Regular expression searches are described in Regular Expression
Search (emacs)Regexp Search, as well as in (elisp)Regular
Expressions. In writing this chapter, I am presuming that you have at
least a mild acquaintance with them. The major point to remember is
that regular expressions permit you to search for patterns as well as
for literal strings of characters. For example, the code in
‘forward-sentence’ searches for the pattern of possible characters that
could mark the end of a sentence, and moves point to that spot.
Before looking at the code for the ‘forward-sentence’ function, it is
worth considering what the pattern that marks the end of a sentence must
be. The pattern is discussed in the next section; following that is a
description of the regular expression search function,
‘re-search-forward’. The ‘forward-sentence’ function is described in
the section following. Finally, the ‘forward-paragraph’ function is
described in the last section of this chapter. ‘forward-paragraph’ is a
complex function that introduces several new features.
Menu
Info Catalog
eintr: Loops & Recursion
eintr: Top
eintr: Counting Words