How to use UE plus + for repeated 'expressions'?

Aguilucho · Aug 25, 2015#12015-08-25T22:55+00:00

In my spanish version of html help included in UltraEdit, it says that the + symbol (plus) finds one or more occurrences of preceding 'characters or expressions' but I don't know how to put an expression of any class, like
555[a-z]*(Only u??)+ for me
I hope find (and further replace): 555A...Only useOnlybyeOnlyday for me

I don't know how to put together an expression. Should I use brackets, parenthesis, braces {} or any other means?
I want to know the power of specifically & simple UE expressions before learning other symbols and expressions and I want to use the simplest solutions before macros or scripts

Gratefully

Mofi · Aug 26, 2015#22015-08-26T07:56+00:00

Grouping an expression and applying a multiplier as possible with Perl is not possible with UltraEdit or Unix regular expression engines.

In Perl it is possible to use (expression in capturing group) or (?:expression in non-capturing group) and apply the multipliers * (0 or more times greedy), *? (0 or more times non greedy), + (1 or more times greedy), +? (1 or more times non greedy), ? (0 or 1 times), {x} (exactly x times), {x,} (at least x times), or {x,y} (at least x times and not more than y times) to the expression.

But in UltraEdit syntax it is only possible to use

?+ ... find any character except new line characters 1 or more times greedy.
?++ ... find any character except new line characters 0 or more times greedy.

a+ ... find character a 1 or more times.
a++ ... find character a 0 or more times.

[0-9]+ ... find any digit 1 or more times.
[0-9]++ ... find any digit 0 or more times.

A negative character set with + and ++ can be used, too.

* is in UltraEdit syntax not a multiplier. It means any character except new line characters 0 or more times non-greedy independent on what is left. * in UE syntax is .*? in Perl syntax. ?++ in UE syntax is greedy .* in Perl syntax.

The term preceding character/expression in English help about Regular Expressions (Legacy) is perhaps not good taking into account what expression means in Perl syntax. Better would be the term preceding single character/character set which I will suggest IDM by email. If Spanish help contains really characters or expressions, the plural words should be definitely replaced by their singular words.