Pattern Item

A pattern item can be:

• a single character class, which matches any single character in the class;
• a single character class followed by '*', which matches 0 or more repetitions of characters in the class. These repetition items will always match the longest possible sequence;
• a single character class followed by '+', which matches 1 or more repetitions of characters in the class. These repetition items will always match the longest possible sequence;
• a single character class followed by '-', which also matches 0 or more repetitions of characters in the class. Unlike '*', these repetition items will always match the shortest possible sequence;
• a single character class followed by '?', which matches 0 or 1 occurrence of a character in the class;
• %n, for n between 1 and 9; such item matches a substring equal to the n-th captured string (see below);
• %bxy, where x and y are two distinct characters; such item matches strings that start with x, end with y, and where the x and y are balanced. This means that, if one reads the string from left to right, counting +1 for an x and -1 for a y, the ending y is the first y where the count reaches 0. For instance, the item %b() matches expressions with balanced parentheses.