Method

GLibRegexmatch_all_full

since: 2.14

Declaration [src] 

gboolean
g_regex_match_all_full (
  const GRegex* regex,
  const gchar* string,
  gssize string_len,
  gint start_position,
  GRegexMatchFlags match_options,
  GMatchInfo** match_info,
  GError** error
)

Description [src]

Using the standard algorithm for regular expression matching only the longest match in the string is retrieved, it is not possible to obtain all the available matches. For instance matching "<a> <b> <c>" against the pattern "<.*>" you get "<a> <b> <c>".

This function uses a different algorithm (called DFA, i.e. deterministic finite automaton), so it can retrieve all the possible matches, all starting at the same point in the string. For instance matching "<a> <b> <c>" against the pattern "<.*>" you would obtain three matches: "<a> <b> <c>", "<a> <b>" and "<a>".

The number of matched strings is retrieved using g_match_info_get_match_count(). To obtain the matched strings and their position you can use, respectively, g_match_info_fetch() and g_match_info_fetch_pos(). Note that the strings are returned in reverse order of length; that is, the longest matching string is given first.

Note that the DFA algorithm is slower than the standard one and it is not able to capture substrings, so backreferences do not work.

Setting start_position differs from just passing over a shortened string and setting G_REGEX_MATCH_NOTBOL in the case of a pattern that begins with any kind of lookbehind assertion, such as “\b”.

Unless G_REGEX_RAW is specified in the options, string must be valid UTF-8.

A GMatchInfo structure, used to get information on the match, is stored in match_info if not NULL. Note that if match_info is not NULL then it is created even if the function returns FALSE, i.e. you must free it regardless if regular expression actually matched.

string is not copied and is used in GMatchInfo internally. If you use any GMatchInfo method (except g_match_info_free()) after freeing or modifying string then the behaviour is undefined.

Available since: 2.14

Parameters

string

Type: An array of gchar

The string to scan for matches.

The length of the array is specified in the string_len argument.
The data is owned by the caller of the method.
Each element is a NUL terminated UTF-8 string.
string_len

Type: gssize

The length of string, in bytes, or -1 if string is nul-terminated.

start_position

Type: gint

Starting index of the string to match, in bytes.

match_options

Type: GRegexMatchFlags

Match options.

match_info

Type: GMatchInfo

Pointer to location where to store the GMatchInfo, or NULL if you do not need it.

The argument will be set by the function.
The argument can be NULL.
The caller of the method takes ownership of the returned data, and is responsible for freeing it.
error

Type: GError **

The return location for a recoverable error.

The argument can be NULL.
If the return location is not NULL, then you must initialize it to a NULL GError*.
The argument will be left initialized to NULL by the method if there are no errors.
In case of error, the argument will be set to a newly allocated GError; the caller will take ownership of the data, and be responsible for freeing it.

Return value

Type: gboolean

TRUE is the string matched, FALSE otherwise.