diff --git a/pmg-mail-filter.adoc b/pmg-mail-filter.adoc index 233891c..a02c5bf 100644 --- a/pmg-mail-filter.adoc +++ b/pmg-mail-filter.adoc @@ -233,3 +233,47 @@ them of one or more time-frame items. The default ruleset defines 'Office Hours', but this is not used by the default rules. + + +Using regular expressions +------------------------- + +A regular expression is a string of characters which tells us which +string you are looking for. The following is a short introduction in +the syntax of regular expressions used by some objects. If you are +familiar with Perl, you already know the syntax. + +Simple regular expressions +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +In its simplest form, a regular expression is just a word or phrase to +search for. `Mail` would match the string "Mail". The search is case +sensitive so "MAIL", "Mail", "mail" would not be matched. + +Metacharacters +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Some characters have a special meaning. These characters are called +metacharacters. The Period (`.`) is a commonly used metacharacter. It +matches exactly one character, regardless of what the character is. +`e.mail` would match either "e-mail" or "e-mail" or "e2mail" but not +"e-some-mail". + +The question mark (`?`) indicates that the character immediately +preceding it either zero or one time. `e?mail` would match +either "email" or "mail" but not "e-mail". + +Another metacharacter is the star (`*`). This indicates that the +character immediately to its left may repeated any number of times, +including zero. `e*mail` would match either "email" or "mail" or +"eeemail". + +The plus (`+`) metacharacter does the same as the star (*) excluding +zero. So `e+mail` does not match "mail". + +Metacharacters may be combined. A common combination includes the +period and star metacharacters (`.*`), with the star immediately following +the period. This is used to match an arbitrary string of any length, +including the null string. For example: `.*company.*` matches +"company@domain.com" or "company@domain.co.uk" or +"department.company@domain.com".