perl6/doc/lib/Regex

doc src

(title)  class Regex

    class Regex is Method { }

A regex is a kind of pattern that describes a set of strings. The process of finding out whether a given string is in the set is called I<matching>. The result of such a matching is a L<Match> object, which evalutes to True in boolean context if the string is in the set. A regex is typically constructed by a regex literal

    rx/ ^ab /;      # describes all strings starting with 'ab'
    / ^ ab /;       # same
    rx/ \d ** 2/;   # describes all strings containing at least two digits

To match a string against a regex, you can use the smart match operator:

    my $match = 'abc' ~~ rx/ ^ab /;
    say $match.True;                # True
    say $match.orig;                # abc
    say $match.Str;                 # ab
    say $match.from;                # 0
    say $match.to;                  # 2

Or you can evaluate the regex in boolean context, in which case it matches against the $_ variable

    $_ = 'abc';
    if / ^ab / {
        say '"abc" begins with "ab"';
    }
    else {
        say 'This is a weird alternative Universe';
    }

Methods

(head2)  ACCEPTS

    multi method ACCEPTS(Regex:D: Mu) returns Match:D
    multi method ACCEPTS(Regex:D: @)
    multi method ACCEPTS(Regex:D: %)

Matches the regex against the argument passed in. If the argument is L<Positional>, it returns the first successful match of any list item. If the argument is L<Associative>, it returns the first successful match of any key. Otherwise it interprets the argument as a L<Str> and matches against it. In the case of Positional and Associative matches, L<Nil> is returned on failure.

(head2)  Bool

    multi method Bool(Regex:D:) returns Bool:D

Matches against the caller's L<$_> variable, and returns the L<Match> object

perl6/doc/lib/Regex

Methods

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