FunctX XQuery Function Library > Strings > Replacing >

functx:escape-for-regex

Escapes regex special characters

Description

The functx:escape-for-regex function escapes a string that you wish to be taken literally rather than treated like a regular expression. This is useful when, for example, you are calling the built-in fn:replace function and you want any periods or parentheses to be treated like literal characters rather than regex special characters.

Arguments and Return Type

XQuery Function Declaration

declare namespace functx = "http://www.functx.com";
declare function functx:escape-for-regex
  ( $arg as xs:string? )  as xs:string {

   replace($arg,
           '(\.|\[|\]|\\|\||\-|\^|\$|\?|\*|\+|\{|\}|\(|\))','\\$1')
 } ;

Examples

functx:escape-for-regex('5.55')

5\.55

functx:escape-for-regex('[abc]')

\[abc\]

See Also

History