OT: Regular Expressions

  I'm an amateur at regular expressions :-(

I know I can search for...

'[a-zA-Z0-9\+\-\.\*\/\(\)\_]+'

and my editor (UltraEdit) will highlight...

'some_text_characters_and_math_operators'

I want to do a replace operation such that I get...



(In other words just change the opening and closing characters)

How do I do that?

(UltraEdit supports Perl, Unix and their own flavor of regular
expression language.)

Thanks!

                                        ...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             |
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     |
            
 Stormy on the East Coast today... due to Bush's failed policies.

 

Depending on what regex compiler it uses, either this:



or this:

\

By default, regex's match characters as-is, but if the compiler
interprets a character as special (like + or ]) you put a backslash in
front of it to mean "match this character as-is".

Note that some regex compilers do the opposite for some characters;
for example Emacs's () are regular characters, but \( and \) are
special grouping operations.  So either read the manual, or just try
both ways.

 

Both approaches replace 'desired_text' with
    :-(

I need to retain the desired_text.

                                        ...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             |
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     |
            
 I love to cook with wine     Sometimes I even put it in the food

 

Ah, I missed that part.  Sorry.

Yeah, substitutes for whatever the (...) matched.

 

I'm learning.  I have several cookbooks, but I think I need a good
introductory text.

                                        ...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             |
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     |
            
 I love to cook with wine     Sometimes I even put it in the food