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2: <head>
3: <title>pcrematching specification</title>
4: </head>
5: <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#00005A" link="#0066FF" alink="#3399FF" vlink="#2222BB">
6: <h1>pcrematching man page</h1>
7: <p>
8: Return to the <a href="index.html">PCRE index page</a>.
9: </p>
10: <p>
11: This page is part of the PCRE HTML documentation. It was generated automatically
12: from the original man page. If there is any nonsense in it, please consult the
13: man page, in case the conversion went wrong.
14: <br>
15: <ul>
16: <li><a name="TOC1" href="#SEC1">PCRE MATCHING ALGORITHMS</a>
17: <li><a name="TOC2" href="#SEC2">REGULAR EXPRESSIONS AS TREES</a>
18: <li><a name="TOC3" href="#SEC3">THE STANDARD MATCHING ALGORITHM</a>
19: <li><a name="TOC4" href="#SEC4">THE ALTERNATIVE MATCHING ALGORITHM</a>
20: <li><a name="TOC5" href="#SEC5">ADVANTAGES OF THE ALTERNATIVE ALGORITHM</a>
21: <li><a name="TOC6" href="#SEC6">DISADVANTAGES OF THE ALTERNATIVE ALGORITHM</a>
22: <li><a name="TOC7" href="#SEC7">AUTHOR</a>
23: <li><a name="TOC8" href="#SEC8">REVISION</a>
24: </ul>
25: <br><a name="SEC1" href="#TOC1">PCRE MATCHING ALGORITHMS</a><br>
26: <P>
27: This document describes the two different algorithms that are available in PCRE
28: for matching a compiled regular expression against a given subject string. The
1.1.1.3 ! misho 29: "standard" algorithm is the one provided by the <b>pcre_exec()</b>,
! 30: <b>pcre16_exec()</b> and <b>pcre32_exec()</b> functions. These work in the same
! 31: as as Perl's matching function, and provide a Perl-compatible matching operation.
! 32: The just-in-time (JIT) optimization that is described in the
1.1.1.2 misho 33: <a href="pcrejit.html"><b>pcrejit</b></a>
34: documentation is compatible with these functions.
1.1 misho 35: </P>
36: <P>
1.1.1.3 ! misho 37: An alternative algorithm is provided by the <b>pcre_dfa_exec()</b>,
! 38: <b>pcre16_dfa_exec()</b> and <b>pcre32_dfa_exec()</b> functions; they operate in
! 39: a different way, and are not Perl-compatible. This alternative has advantages
! 40: and disadvantages compared with the standard algorithm, and these are described
! 41: below.
1.1 misho 42: </P>
43: <P>
44: When there is only one possible way in which a given subject string can match a
45: pattern, the two algorithms give the same answer. A difference arises, however,
46: when there are multiple possibilities. For example, if the pattern
47: <pre>
48: ^<.*>
49: </pre>
50: is matched against the string
51: <pre>
52: <something> <something else> <something further>
53: </pre>
54: there are three possible answers. The standard algorithm finds only one of
55: them, whereas the alternative algorithm finds all three.
56: </P>
57: <br><a name="SEC2" href="#TOC1">REGULAR EXPRESSIONS AS TREES</a><br>
58: <P>
59: The set of strings that are matched by a regular expression can be represented
60: as a tree structure. An unlimited repetition in the pattern makes the tree of
61: infinite size, but it is still a tree. Matching the pattern to a given subject
62: string (from a given starting point) can be thought of as a search of the tree.
63: There are two ways to search a tree: depth-first and breadth-first, and these
64: correspond to the two matching algorithms provided by PCRE.
65: </P>
66: <br><a name="SEC3" href="#TOC1">THE STANDARD MATCHING ALGORITHM</a><br>
67: <P>
68: In the terminology of Jeffrey Friedl's book "Mastering Regular
69: Expressions", the standard algorithm is an "NFA algorithm". It conducts a
70: depth-first search of the pattern tree. That is, it proceeds along a single
71: path through the tree, checking that the subject matches what is required. When
72: there is a mismatch, the algorithm tries any alternatives at the current point,
73: and if they all fail, it backs up to the previous branch point in the tree, and
74: tries the next alternative branch at that level. This often involves backing up
75: (moving to the left) in the subject string as well. The order in which
76: repetition branches are tried is controlled by the greedy or ungreedy nature of
77: the quantifier.
78: </P>
79: <P>
80: If a leaf node is reached, a matching string has been found, and at that point
81: the algorithm stops. Thus, if there is more than one possible match, this
82: algorithm returns the first one that it finds. Whether this is the shortest,
83: the longest, or some intermediate length depends on the way the greedy and
84: ungreedy repetition quantifiers are specified in the pattern.
85: </P>
86: <P>
87: Because it ends up with a single path through the tree, it is relatively
88: straightforward for this algorithm to keep track of the substrings that are
89: matched by portions of the pattern in parentheses. This provides support for
90: capturing parentheses and back references.
91: </P>
92: <br><a name="SEC4" href="#TOC1">THE ALTERNATIVE MATCHING ALGORITHM</a><br>
93: <P>
94: This algorithm conducts a breadth-first search of the tree. Starting from the
95: first matching point in the subject, it scans the subject string from left to
96: right, once, character by character, and as it does this, it remembers all the
97: paths through the tree that represent valid matches. In Friedl's terminology,
98: this is a kind of "DFA algorithm", though it is not implemented as a
99: traditional finite state machine (it keeps multiple states active
100: simultaneously).
101: </P>
102: <P>
103: Although the general principle of this matching algorithm is that it scans the
104: subject string only once, without backtracking, there is one exception: when a
105: lookaround assertion is encountered, the characters following or preceding the
106: current point have to be independently inspected.
107: </P>
108: <P>
109: The scan continues until either the end of the subject is reached, or there are
110: no more unterminated paths. At this point, terminated paths represent the
111: different matching possibilities (if there are none, the match has failed).
112: Thus, if there is more than one possible match, this algorithm finds all of
113: them, and in particular, it finds the longest. The matches are returned in
114: decreasing order of length. There is an option to stop the algorithm after the
115: first match (which is necessarily the shortest) is found.
116: </P>
117: <P>
118: Note that all the matches that are found start at the same point in the
119: subject. If the pattern
120: <pre>
121: cat(er(pillar)?)?
122: </pre>
123: is matched against the string "the caterpillar catchment", the result will be
124: the three strings "caterpillar", "cater", and "cat" that start at the fifth
125: character of the subject. The algorithm does not automatically move on to find
126: matches that start at later positions.
127: </P>
128: <P>
129: There are a number of features of PCRE regular expressions that are not
130: supported by the alternative matching algorithm. They are as follows:
131: </P>
132: <P>
133: 1. Because the algorithm finds all possible matches, the greedy or ungreedy
134: nature of repetition quantifiers is not relevant. Greedy and ungreedy
135: quantifiers are treated in exactly the same way. However, possessive
136: quantifiers can make a difference when what follows could also match what is
137: quantified, for example in a pattern like this:
138: <pre>
139: ^a++\w!
140: </pre>
141: This pattern matches "aaab!" but not "aaa!", which would be matched by a
142: non-possessive quantifier. Similarly, if an atomic group is present, it is
143: matched as if it were a standalone pattern at the current point, and the
144: longest match is then "locked in" for the rest of the overall pattern.
145: </P>
146: <P>
147: 2. When dealing with multiple paths through the tree simultaneously, it is not
148: straightforward to keep track of captured substrings for the different matching
149: possibilities, and PCRE's implementation of this algorithm does not attempt to
150: do this. This means that no captured substrings are available.
151: </P>
152: <P>
153: 3. Because no substrings are captured, back references within the pattern are
154: not supported, and cause errors if encountered.
155: </P>
156: <P>
157: 4. For the same reason, conditional expressions that use a backreference as the
158: condition or test for a specific group recursion are not supported.
159: </P>
160: <P>
161: 5. Because many paths through the tree may be active, the \K escape sequence,
162: which resets the start of the match when encountered (but may be on some paths
163: and not on others), is not supported. It causes an error if encountered.
164: </P>
165: <P>
166: 6. Callouts are supported, but the value of the <i>capture_top</i> field is
167: always 1, and the value of the <i>capture_last</i> field is always -1.
168: </P>
169: <P>
1.1.1.2 misho 170: 7. The \C escape sequence, which (in the standard algorithm) always matches a
1.1.1.3 ! misho 171: single data unit, even in UTF-8, UTF-16 or UTF-32 modes, is not supported in
! 172: these modes, because the alternative algorithm moves through the subject string
! 173: one character (not data unit) at a time, for all active paths through the tree.
1.1 misho 174: </P>
175: <P>
176: 8. Except for (*FAIL), the backtracking control verbs such as (*PRUNE) are not
177: supported. (*FAIL) is supported, and behaves like a failing negative assertion.
178: </P>
179: <br><a name="SEC5" href="#TOC1">ADVANTAGES OF THE ALTERNATIVE ALGORITHM</a><br>
180: <P>
181: Using the alternative matching algorithm provides the following advantages:
182: </P>
183: <P>
184: 1. All possible matches (at a single point in the subject) are automatically
185: found, and in particular, the longest match is found. To find more than one
186: match using the standard algorithm, you have to do kludgy things with
187: callouts.
188: </P>
189: <P>
190: 2. Because the alternative algorithm scans the subject string just once, and
1.1.1.2 misho 191: never needs to backtrack (except for lookbehinds), it is possible to pass very
192: long subject strings to the matching function in several pieces, checking for
193: partial matching each time. Although it is possible to do multi-segment
194: matching using the standard algorithm by retaining partially matched
195: substrings, it is more complicated. The
1.1 misho 196: <a href="pcrepartial.html"><b>pcrepartial</b></a>
197: documentation gives details of partial matching and discusses multi-segment
198: matching.
199: </P>
200: <br><a name="SEC6" href="#TOC1">DISADVANTAGES OF THE ALTERNATIVE ALGORITHM</a><br>
201: <P>
202: The alternative algorithm suffers from a number of disadvantages:
203: </P>
204: <P>
205: 1. It is substantially slower than the standard algorithm. This is partly
206: because it has to search for all possible matches, but is also because it is
207: less susceptible to optimization.
208: </P>
209: <P>
210: 2. Capturing parentheses and back references are not supported.
211: </P>
212: <P>
213: 3. Although atomic groups are supported, their use does not provide the
214: performance advantage that it does for the standard algorithm.
215: </P>
216: <br><a name="SEC7" href="#TOC1">AUTHOR</a><br>
217: <P>
218: Philip Hazel
219: <br>
220: University Computing Service
221: <br>
222: Cambridge CB2 3QH, England.
223: <br>
224: </P>
225: <br><a name="SEC8" href="#TOC1">REVISION</a><br>
226: <P>
1.1.1.2 misho 227: Last updated: 08 January 2012
1.1 misho 228: <br>
1.1.1.2 misho 229: Copyright © 1997-2012 University of Cambridge.
1.1 misho 230: <br>
231: <p>
232: Return to the <a href="index.html">PCRE index page</a>.
233: </p>
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