View source for Help talk:Searching/Regex

{{Talk header}}

== Backreference ==
Is there a way to use Backreference (e.g. (.)\1 )? [[User:Uziel302|&#32; Uziel302]] ([[User talk:Uziel302|talk]]) 20:21, 27 July 2020 (UTC)
:{{Re|Uziel302}} No, that's not supported; <code>\1</code> just matches a literal "1". For example, [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?cirrusUserTesting=control&sort=relevance&search=intitle%3A%2F%28A%29%5C1+road%2F&title=Special:Search&profile=advanced&fulltext=1&advancedSearch-current=%7B%7D&ns0=1&ns10=1 try this search]. -- [[User:John of Reading|John of Reading]] ([[User talk:John of Reading|talk]]) 21:09, 27 July 2020 (UTC)
::[[User:John of Reading|John of Reading]], that's why I asked, and couldn't find on which level it is, mediawiki/elastic/lucene. [[User:Uziel302|&#32; Uziel302]] ([[User talk:Uziel302|talk]]) 12:35, 28 July 2020 (UTC)
::{{hidden ping|John of Reading|Uziel302}} Me would like to see reference for the no-support status (it may be supported with a different syntax), rather than another non-working example, too. —[[User:Mykhal|Mykhal]] ([[User talk:Mykhal|talk]]) 10:03, 5 October 2020 (UTC)
:::{{Re|Mykhal}} I'm not clear on the difference between mediawiki/elastic/lucene. Perhaps ask at [[WP:VPT]] to find someone who knows their way around the source code. I think that's the only possible reference for something not being supported. -- [[User:John of Reading|John of Reading]] ([[User talk:John of Reading|talk]]) 15:18, 5 October 2020 (UTC)

== Dot <code>.</code> not matching newline ==

{{tq|Dot <code>.</code> will match a newline, or any character in the targeted position}}[[Help:Searching/Regex#Metacharacters|<sup>[1]</sup>]]
Does it really? It doesn't seem to be doing it here. For instance, {{code|\{{!}}-.*\{{!}}}} doesn't match the beginning of table of rows. Am I doing it wrong? [[User:Guarapiranga|— 𝐆𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐚]] ([[User talk:Guarapiranga|talk]]) 03:58, 19 May 2021 (UTC)

== Start and end of regexp for title ==

There is a text on the page: {{tq|Regex experts should note that ^ does not mean "beginning of text" and $ does not mean "end of text." Searching from the beginning or end of a Wikipedia page is not generally useful.}}

However, searching from the beginning or end of a title is useful. Can you please implement these characters for the title? [[User:Maxim Masiutin|Maxim Masiutin]] ([[User talk:Maxim Masiutin|talk]]) 17:41, 14 December 2023 (UTC)

:I agree, they are indeed useful. By the way, in case you aren't aware, [[WP:PetScan]] supports the regex metacharacters ^ and $; see [[Help_talk:Searching#Wildcards|this discussion]] for examples. --[[User:JAAqqO|JAAqqO]] ([[User talk:JAAqqO|talk]]) 19:28, 14 December 2023 (UTC)