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std::regex_search

Defined in header `<regex>`
template< class BidirIt, class Alloc, class CharT, class Traits > bool regex_search( BidirIt first, BidirIt last, std::match_results<BidirIt,Alloc>& m, const std::basic_regex<CharT,Traits>& e, std::regex_constants::match_flag_type flags = std::regex_constants::match_default );	(1)	(since C++11)
template< class CharT, class Alloc, class Traits > bool regex_search( const CharT* str, std::match_results<const CharT*,Alloc>& m, const std::basic_regex<CharT,Traits>& e, std::regex_constants::match_flag_type flags = std::regex_constants::match_default );	(2)	(since C++11)
template< class STraits, class SAlloc, class Alloc, class CharT, class Traits > bool regex_search( const std::basic_string<CharT,STraits,SAlloc>& s, std::match_results< typename std::basic_string<CharT,STraits,SAlloc>::const_iterator, Alloc >& m, const std::basic_regex<CharT, Traits>& e, std::regex_constants::match_flag_type flags = std::regex_constants::match_default );	(3)	(since C++11)
template< class BidirIt, class CharT, class Traits > bool regex_search( BidirIt first, BidirIt last, const std::basic_regex<CharT,Traits>& e, std::regex_constants::match_flag_type flags = std::regex_constants::match_default );	(4)	(since C++11)
template< class CharT, class Traits > bool regex_search( const CharT* str, const std::basic_regex<CharT,Traits>& e, std::regex_constants::match_flag_type flags = std::regex_constants::match_default );	(5)	(since C++11)
template< class STraits, class SAlloc, class CharT, class Traits > bool regex_search( const std::basic_string<CharT,STraits,SAlloc>& s, const std::basic_regex<CharT,Traits>& e, std::regex_constants::match_flag_type flags = std::regex_constants::match_default );	(6)	(since C++11)
template< class STraits, class SAlloc, class Alloc, class CharT, class Traits > bool regex_search( const std::basic_string<CharT,STraits,SAlloc>&&, std::match_results< typename std::basic_string<CharT,STraits,SAlloc>::const_iterator, Alloc >&, const std::basic_regex<CharT, Traits>&, std::regex_constants::match_flag_type flags = std::regex_constants::match_default ) = delete;	(7)	(since C++11)

Determines if there is a match between the regular expression e and some subsequence in the target character sequence.

1) Analyzes generic range [first, last). Match results are returned in m.

2) Analyzes a null-terminated string pointed to by str. Match results are returned in m.

3) Analyzes a string s. Match results are returned in m.

4-6) Equivalent to (1-3), just omits the match results.

7) The overload (3) is prohibited from accepting temporary strings, otherwise this function populates match_results m with string iterators that become invalid immediately.

regex_search will successfully match any subsequence of the given sequence, whereas std::regex_match will only return true if the regular expression matches the entire sequence.

Parameters

first, last	-	a range identifying the target character sequence
str	-	a pointer to a null-terminated target character sequence
s	-	a string identifying target character sequence
e	-	the `std::regex` that should be applied to the target character sequence
m	-	the match results
flags	-	`std::regex_constants::match_flag_type` governing search behavior
Type requirements
-`BidirIt` must meet the requirements of LegacyBidirectionalIterator.
-`Alloc` must meet the requirements of Allocator.

Return value

Returns true if a match exists, false otherwise. In either case, the object m is updated, as follows:

If the match does not exist:

`m.ready() == true`
`m.empty() == true`
`m.size() == 0`

If the match exists:

`m.ready()`	`true`
`m.empty()`	`false`
`m.size()`	number of marked subexpressions plus 1, that is, `1 + e.mark_count()`
`m.prefix().first`	`first`
`m.prefix().second`	`m[0].first`
`m.prefix().matched`	`m.prefix().first != m.prefix().second`
`m.suffix().first`	`m[0].second`
`m.suffix().second`	`last`
`m.suffix().matched`	`m.suffix().first != m.suffix().second`
`m[0].first`	the start of the matching sequence
`m[0].second`	the end of the matching sequence
`m[0].matched`	`true`
`m[n].first`	the start of the sequence that matched marked sub-expression n, or `last` if the subexpression did not participate in the match
`m[n].second`	the end of the sequence that matched marked sub-expression n, or `last` if the subexpression did not participate in the match
`m[n].matched`	`true` if sub-expression n participated in the match, `false` otherwise

Notes

In order to examine all matches within the target sequence, std::regex_search may be called in a loop, restarting each time from m[0].second of the previous call. std::regex_iterator offers an easy interface to this iteration.

Example

#include <iostream>
#include <regex>
#include <string>
 
int main()
{
    std::string lines[] = {"Roses are #ff0000",
                           "violets are #0000ff",
                           "all of my base are belong to you"};
 
    std::regex color_regex("#([a-f0-9]{2})"
                            "([a-f0-9]{2})"
                            "([a-f0-9]{2})");
 
    // simple match
    for (const auto &line : lines) {
        std::cout << line << ": " << std::boolalpha
                  << std::regex_search(line, color_regex) << '\n';
    }   
    std::cout << '\n';
 
    // show contents of marked subexpressions within each match
    std::smatch color_match;
    for (const auto& line : lines) {
        if(std::regex_search(line, color_match, color_regex)) {
            std::cout << "matches for '" << line << "'\n";
            std::cout << "Prefix: '" << color_match.prefix() << "'\n";
            for (size_t i = 0; i < color_match.size(); ++i) 
                std::cout << i << ": " << color_match[i] << '\n';
            std::cout << "Suffix: '" << color_match.suffix() << "\'\n\n";
        }
    }
 
    // repeated search (see also std::regex_iterator)
    std::string log(R"(
        Speed:        366
        Mass:        35
        Speed:        378
        Mass:        32
        Speed:        400
        Mass:        30)");
    std::regex r(R"(Speed:\t\d*)");
    std::smatch sm;
    while(regex_search(log, sm, r))
    {
        std::cout << sm.str() << '\n';
        log = sm.suffix();
    }
 
    // C-style string demo
    std::cmatch cm;
    if(std::regex_search("this is a test", cm, std::regex("test"))) 
        std::cout << "\nFound " << cm[0] << " at position " << cm.prefix().length();
}

Output:

Roses are #ff0000: true
violets are #0000ff: true
all of my base are belong to you: false
 
matches for 'Roses are #ff0000'
Prefix: 'Roses are '
0: #ff0000
1: ff
2: 00
3: 00
Suffix: ''
 
matches for 'violets are #0000ff'
Prefix: 'violets are '
0: #0000ff
1: 00
2: 00
3: ff
Suffix: ''
 
Speed:        366
Speed:        378
Speed:        400
 
Found test at position 10

Defect reports

The following behavior-changing defect reports were applied retroactively to previously published C++ standards.

DR	Applied to	Behavior as published	Correct behavior
LWG 2329	C++11	`basic_string` rvalues were accepted, which was likely to result in dangling iterators	rejected via a deleted overload