Pattern Property

Description

Gets or sets the regular expression for the FlatEdit control.

Property Type

Read-write property

Syntax (Visual Basic)

Public Property Pattern() As String

Remarks

Pattern is a regexp string. FlatEdit will automatically mark text if it does not match the pattern.

Special characters and sequences are used in writing patterns for regular expressions. The following table describes and gives an example of the characters and sequences that can be used.

Character	Description
`\`	Marks the next character as either a special character or a literal. For example, `n` matches the character `n`. `\n` matches a newline character. The sequence `\\` matches `\` and `\(` matches `(`.
`^`	Matches the beginning of input.
`$`	Matches the end of input.
`*`	Matches the preceding character zero or more times. For example, `zo*` matches either `z` or `zoo`.
`+`	Matches the preceding character one or more times. For example, `zo+` matches `zoo` but not `z`.
`?`	Matches the preceding character zero or one time. For example, `a?ve?` matches the `ve` in `never`.
`.`	Matches any single character except a newline character.
`\|`	Matches either the expression before or the expression after. For example, `x\|y` matches `x` or `y`.
`(...)`	Groups patterns and remembers the match. The matched substring can be retrieved from the resulting `Matches` collection, using `Item[0]...[n]`.
`{n}`	Matches exactly `n` times. For example, `o{2}` does not match the `o` in `Bob`, but matches the first two `o`s in `foooood`.
`{n,}`	Matches at least `n` times. For example, `o{2,}` does not match the `o` in `Bob` and matches all the `o`s in `foooood`. `o{1,}` is equivalent to `o+`. `o{0,}` is equivalent to `o*`.
`{n,m}`	Matches at least `n` and at most `m` times. For example, `o{1,3}` matches the first three `o`s in `fooooood`. `o{0,1}` is equivalent to `o?`.
`[xyz]`	A character set. Matches any one of the enclosed characters. For example, `[abc]` matches the `a` in `plain`.
`[^xyz]`	A negative character set. Matches any character not enclosed. For example, `[^abc]` matches the `p` in `plain`.
`[a-z]`	A range of characters. Matches any character in the specified range. For example, `[a-z]` matches any lowercase alphabetic character in the range `a` through `z`.
`[^m-z]`	A negative range of characters. Matches any character not in the specified range. For example, `[m-z]` matches any character not in the range `m` through `z`.
`\b`	Matches a word boundary, that is, the position between a word and a space. For example, `er\b` matches the `er` in `never` but not the `er` in `verb`.
`\B`	Matches a non-word boundary. `ea*r\B` matches the `ear` in `never early`.
`\d`	Matches a digit character. Equivalent to `[0-9]`.
`\D`	Matches a non-digit character. Equivalent to `[^0-9]`.
`\f`	Matches a form-feed character.
`\n`	Matches a newline character.
`\r`	Matches a carriage return character.
`\s`	Matches any whitespace including space, tab, form-feed, etc. Equivalent to `[\f\n\r\t\v]`.
`\S`	Matches any non-whitespace character. Equivalent to `[^ \f\n\r\t\v]`.
`\t`	Matches a tab character.
`\v`	Matches a vertical tab character.
`\w`	Matches any word character including underscore. Equivalent to `[A-Za-z0-9_]`.
`\W`	Matches any non-word character. Equivalent to `[^A-Za-z0-9_]`.
`\x`	Matches the character specified by the hexadecimal escape value.

Example

This example shows how to allow only numbers in the flat edit control.

FlatEdit.Pattern = "\d*"