Suggest add to "lengthPattern" that the longest possible match is taken. This is the usual behavior for regular expressions, but it's a clarification I've seen other places. _____ From: dfdl-wg-bounces@ogf.org [mailto:dfdl-wg-bounces@ogf.org] On Behalf Of Alan Powell Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2008 12:44 PM To: dfdl-wg@ogf.org Subject: [DFDL-WG] DFDL Regular Expression proposal Attached is the proposal for the regular expression syntax used to determine element length. Highlights * Based on the XML Schema regular expression subset used by WebSphere Message Broker. * Only applies to representation = text * Uses LengthPattern property rather than decorated syntax to distinguish from literals and regular expressions as it is only used in one place, this avoids everywhere else having to escape the decoration character and we are running out of decoration characters. * Assumes the pattern is converted to the data code page before matching against the data stream. Comments and improvements as soon as possible please. Alan Powell MP 211, IBM UK Labs, Hursley, Winchester, SO21 2JN, England Notes Id: Alan Powell/UK/IBM email: alan_powell@uk.ibm.com Tel: +44 (0)1962 815073 Fax: +44 (0)1962 816898 _____ Unless stated otherwise above: IBM United Kingdom Limited - Registered in England and Wales with number 741598. Registered office: PO Box 41, North Harbour, Portsmouth, Hampshire PO6 3AU