"Set oRegExp = New RegExp" - Creating RegExp Objects

VBScript Tutorials - Herong's Tutorial Examples

∟Regular Expression Pattern Match and Replacement

∟"Set oRegExp = New RegExp" - Creating RegExp Objects

This section describes steps on how to create a new RegExp object with a Set statement 'Set oRegExp = New RegExp'. oRegExp.Global and oRegExp.IgnoreCase used to set pattern match options.

We have discussed enough about the returning object structure of a pattern match operation. Now let's look at how can we set up a pattern match operation:

1. Create an empty RegExp object with a "Set" statement and set it to a variable:

   Dim oRegExp
   Set oRegExp = New RegExp

Where "RegExp" is the name of the "RegExp" class; "New" is an operator to create a new object out of a class; "oRegExp" is Variant variable holding the new "RegExp" object.

2. Assign a regular expression string as the match pattern following regular expression rules. Here are some examples of regular expressions - see a regular expression manual for more examples:

   ' A pattern to match any word ending with "ee". 
   ' No sub matches defined.
   oRegExp.Pattern = "\w+ee\s"
   
   ' A pattern to match any email address. 
   ' 3 sub matches defined in the pattern.
   oRegExp.Pattern = "(\w+)@(\w+)\.(\w+)"

3. Set match flags, "Global" and "IgnoreCase". For examples:

   ' Repeat matches on the entire string
   oRegExp.Global = True

   ' Ignore cases while matching the pattern
   oRegExp.IgnoreCase = True

Now the "RegExp" object, oRegExp, is ready to be used to match again any given string following operations:

   ' Returns True if the pattern matched at least once. 
   bFound = oRegExp.Test(string)

   ' Returns a copy of the given string with each match replaced.
   sCopy = oRegExp.Replace(string, replacement)

   ' Returns a MatchCollection object containing matches.
   Set oMatches = oRegExp.Execute(string)