What is the difference between \d+ and \d- OR \w+ and \w- in regular expression terms?

Question

As per title, what is the difference between:

\d+ and \d- \w+ and \w-

in regular expression terms? What influence has + and - ?

- only has significance if used in a character class when identifying a range, as in [a-z], otherwise it carries its literal meaning. — Burhan Khalid, Dec 4, 2013 at 12:53

Toto · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-04 12:51:12Z

24

\d+ means one or more digit [0-9] (depending on LOCALE)
\d- means a digit followed by a dash -

\w+ means one or more word character [a-zA-Z0-9_] (depending on LOCALE)
\w- means a word char followed by a dash -

answered Dec 4, 2013 at 12:38

Toto

90.6k63 gold badges94 silver badges128 bronze badges

1

\w includes numerics [a-zA-Z0-9_]. The exact range can be adjusted by flags ASCII and LOCALE.
– cdarke
Dec 4, 2013 at 12:43
@M42 the same goes for \d, it might also match hindu-arabic digits
– HamZa
Dec 4, 2013 at 12:49

Add a comment |

1 Answer 1