Pattern Matching

The adding, editing, and deleting of various strings used in Relativity is controlled by the matching of patterns.

Pattern matching provides a tool for string comparison between a pattern and a table name, a path name, a file label (if file labels are in effect), or a column name. These are collectively called "searched strings" in the examples provided.

In the Designer, pattern matching is used for the following purposes:

To replace selected characters in all column names defined by default in the FD form.
To replace or restore selected characters in table names during COBOL FD merge operations.

Relativity pattern matching uses the concept of regular expressions. Regular expressions extend the conventional search criteria.

To view a table that shows the list of character(s) in a pattern and what they match in the searched string, refer to Regular Expression Syntax Used in Pattern Matching.

For examples of pattern matching, refer to Pattern Matching Examples.