search expression

In Actuate Basic technology, a condition used in a search. This expression can use special characters. Some nonprinting ASCII codes are represented by character pairs that begin with the backslash (\). The special characters and examples of their use include the items in Table G-3.

Table G-3  Using special characters in a search expression

Special character	Definition
\	Escape next character (1- or 2-byte character)
?	Match any one character (1- or 2-byte character)
*	Match zero or any number of character(s)
\a	Match one alarm (0x07)
\b	Match one backspace (0x08)
\t	Match one tab (0x09)
\n	Match one new line (0x0a)
\f	Match one form feed (0x0c)
\r	Match one carriage return (0x0d)
\\	Match one backslash (\)
[ ]	Match zero characters (ignored)
[characterlist]	Match any one character inside the brackets
[a-z0-9]	Match any lowercase or ASCII numeric character
[a-z-]	Match any lowercase character or hyphen (-)
[^a-z0-9]	Match any character other than lowercase or ASCII numeric
[^] or "\^"	Match one caret (^)
[?] or "\?"	Match one question mark (?)
[#] or "\#"	Match one pound sign (#)
[*] or "\*"	Match one asterisk (*)
[[] or "\["	Match one open bracket ([)
[]] or "\]"	Match one closed bracket (])
["\["-"\]"]	Match any ASCII character code between [ and ]
["\1"-"\377"]	Match any octal character excluding NUL (0x00)
["\x100"-"\xffff"]	Match any hexadecimal character

Related terms

Actuate Basic technology, character, escape character(\), expression, search

Contrast with

wildcard

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