Re: Can't get replace-match to replace intended match-data

[Ehud Karni]

On Sun, 30 Sep 2001 11:26:05 +0200 (MET DST), Jonas Jarnestrom 
<erajonj@ki.ericsson.se> wrote:
> 
> > > 
> > > (defun cs-head-set-target ()
> > > ""
> > >   (interactive)
> > >     (goto-char (point-min))
> > >     (and (re-search-forward "Target: +<\\(.*\\)>"  400 'noerr)
> >                                             ^      
> >     change the . to [^>]           here-----+
> >                                                  ^      
> >     no further than to next '>' as stated here---+ 
> 
> > >    (replace-match "perka" nil nil nil 1))
> > >   )
> > 
> > Regular expressions matches the MAXIMUM possible string. If your search
> > was not limited to 400 characters, Your expression would have taken
> > from the 1st "Target: <" up to the last ">" in your file.
> > 
> Hi Ehud,
> 
> Thanks a lot for your answer.
> 
> However I must assert that your conclusions are wrong.
> It's true that the '*' is very greedy and devours as much as he can,
> but he cannot go further than to the next '>', that is defined in
> the search string. (See above) I have verified this very carefully.
> 
> Your suggested [^>] I have already tried numerous times,
> and in this case it is 100% equivalent to the original '.*'

You are wrong. The `.' may not include New Line (\n) but it sure
include `>'. To check it change your Target line to something like:
   # Target: <cpmerge_dir> xxx> yzf <gfhkfghds>
and your construct (.*) will take until the last `>', while my
suggestion ([^>]*) will take only the 1st `>'.
I looked again at your original message and it looks it is something
else, not the replace-match problem.
Check if your `re-search-forward' and `replace-match' are the built-in
ones. Also, try it on a new clean session without local modifications
(i.e. emacs -q).

Ehud.


-- 
 Ehud Karni     Mivtach - Simon  Insurance   /"\
 Tel: +972-3-7966-561 Fax: +972-3-7966-667   \ /  ASCII Ribbon Campaign
 (USA) Fax and  voice  mail: 1-815-5509341    X   Against  HTML  Mail
     Better     Safe     Than     Sorry      / \
     mailto:ehud@unix.simonwiesel.co.il    http://www.simonwiesel.co.il