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=head1 TITLE
Numberic Value Ranges In Regular Expressions
=head1 VERSION
Maintainer: David Nicol <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: 5 september 2000
Mailing List: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Version: 1
Number: 197
Status: Developing
=head1 ABSTRACT
round and square bratches mated around two optional comma separated numbers
match iff a gobbled number is within the described range.
=head1 DESCRIPTION
=head2 the syntax of the numeric range regex element
Given a passage of regex text matching
($B1,$N1,$N2,$B2) = /(\[|\()(\-?\d*\.?\d*),(\-?\d*\.?\d*)(\]|\))/
and ($N1 <= $N2 or $N1 eq '' or $N2 eq '')
we've got something we hereinafter call a "range."
=head2 what the range matches
A range matches, in the target string, a passage C<(\-?\d*\.?\d*)>
also known as a
"number" if and only if the number is within the range. In the normal agebraic sense.
=head2 "within the range"
Square bracket means, that end of the range may include the range specifying
number, and round parenthesis means, that end of the range includes numbers ov value
up to (or down to) the number but not equal to it.
=head2 infinity
in the event that one or the other of the range specifying numbers
is the empty string, that end of the range is unbounded. In the further event
that we have defined infinity and negative infinity on our numbers, the
square/round distinction will come into play.
=head1 COMPATIBILITY
To disambiguate ranges from character sets indluding
digits, commas, and parentheses, either put a backslash on the right
parentheses, or the comma, or
arrange things so the left hand side of the comma is greater than the
right hand side, that way this special case will not apply:
/(37.3,200)/; # matches any number x, 37.3 < x < 200
/([37,))/; # matches and saves any number >= 37.
/(37\,200)/; # matches and saves the literal text '37,200'
/[-35,9)]/; # matches any number x, -35 <= x < 9; followed by a ]
/[3-5,9)]/; # matches a string containing any of 3,4,5,,,9 or )
=head1 IMPLEMENTATION
When applying regular expressions to numeric
data, ranges may optimize away all of the digit lookahead we must currently
indulge in to implement them in perl5.
If we have infinity defined, we'll have to recognize it in strings.
=head1 BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE
It is possible that the syntax described
in this document may help slice multidimensional
containers. (RFC 191)
=head1 REFERENCES
high school algebra
