The GLASS reference language supports a list of predefined keywords that represent commonly used literal ranges. These preset keywords may be used in place of the literal ranges that they represent anywhere in a GLASS pattern or expression.
For example, use:
The following is a list of all preset keywords that are defined in the GLASS language and the equivalent literal ranges.
| Dropdown Option | GLASS Keyword | Equivalent Literal Range | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alnum | ALNUM | Matches any ASCII alphanumeric character. | "a-zA-Z0-9" |
| Byte | BYTE | Matches any byte. When used with RANGE UNICODE, the GLASS engine will attempt to match an entire Unicode Scalar value if possible (in a greedy manner), and a single octet otherwise. | "\x00-\xFF" or "^" |
| Digit | DIGIT | Matches any ASCII numeral. | "0-9" |
| Horizontal Space | HSPACE | Matches any horizontal whitespace character. | " \t" |
| Letter | LETTER | Matches any ASCII alphabet. | "a-zA-Z" |
| Line | LINE | Matches any new line or carriage return character. | "\r\n" |
| Non-Alnum | NONALNUM | Matches any non-ASCII alphanumeric character or octet. | "^a-zA-Z0-9" |
| Non-Alpha | NONALPHA | Matches any non-ASCII alphabet or octet. | "^a-zA-Z" |
| Non-Digit | NONDIGIT | Matches any non-ASCII numeral or octet. | "^0-9" |
| Space | SPACE | Matches any whitespace character. | " \t\n\v\f\r" |
| Vertical Space | VSPACE | Matches any vertical whitespace character. | "\n\v\f\r" |
| Dropdown Option | GLASS Keyword | Breakdown | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Graphic | GRAPHIC |
|
Matches any ASCII character that is not whitespace or a control character. |
| Printable | PRINTABLE |
|
Matches any printable ASCII character (including horizontal and vertical whitespace) and bytes that can cover extended ASCII and code pages. |
| Printable ASCII | PRINTABLEASCII |
|
Matches any printable ASCII character (including horizontal and vertical whitespace). |
| Printable Non-Alnum | PRINTABLENONALNUM |
|
Matches any printable ASCII character (including horizontal and vertical whitespace) but excluding any alphanumeric characters. |
| Printable Non-Alpha | PRINTABLENONALPHA |
|
Matches any printable ASCII character (including horizontal and vertical whitespace) but excluding any alphabets. |
| Sameline | SAMELINE |
|
Matches any printable ASCII character (including horizontal whitespace) but excluding vertical whitespace. |
Preset range keywords can be used in base patterns as the search pattern. For example, the GLASS code to search for any uppercase or lowercase alphabet from A to Z can be written as Line 1 or Line 2 below:
| 1 | RANGE 'a-zA-Z' |
| 2 | RANGE LETTER |
See RANGE Component for more information.
Preset range keywords can be used to define specific pattern boundaries around a search pattern. For example, the GLASS code to search for a customer ID number (WW301231018313) that is bounded only by non-alphanumeric characters can be written as Line 1 or Line 2 below:
| 1 | WORD 'WW301231018313' BOUND '^a-zA-Z0-9' |
| 2 | WORD 'WW301231018313' BOUND NONALNUM |
Based on the WORD configuration above, the GLASS pattern matching engine will return Line 1 and Line 2 as match locations:
| 1 | Customer ID: WW301231018313 |
| 2 | John Doe|WW301231018313|+65 9876 5432|john.doe@example.com |
| 3 | AB1234WW301231018313DE5678 |
However, Line 3 will not be returned as a match location. The data pattern
that resembles a customer ID number failed the
BOUND pattern rule as it is surrounded by
alphanumeric characters (4 and D) on both sides.
See WORD Component and BOUND Rule for more information.