FunctX XSLT 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

XSLT Function Declaration

<xsl:function name="functx:escape-for-regex" as="xs:string"
              xmlns:functx="http://www.functx.com">
  <xsl:param name="arg" as="xs:string?"/>

  <xsl:sequence select="
   replace($arg,
           '(\.|\[|\]|\\|\||\-|\^|\$|\?|\*|\+|\{|\}|\(|\))','\\$1')
 "/>

</xsl:function>

Examples

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

5\.55

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

\[abc\]

See Also

History