Is there any documentation that clearly explains t...

# getting-started

[Richard Gomez]

Is there any documentation that clearly explains the difference between Kotlin's Regex vs. Java's Pattern?

[Vampire]

You mean regarding the regex syntax?

[Casey Brooks]

Kotlin's Regex class is essentially a multiplatform wrapper around each platform's standard Regex implementation. As such, the specific pattern format may be slightly different between different targets, but on JVM, Regex delegates to java.util.regex.Pattern.

So the only difference between Regex and Pattern is the actual Kotlin API, not the pattern syntax itself

https://kotlinlang.org/api/latest/jvm/stdlib/kotlin.text/-regex/

[ephemient]

as the link says, Kotlin Regex syntax is Java Pattern on JVM, JS RegExp on JS, and I'm not sure what on native (it's not documented)

[Dominaezzz]

Native was implemented from scratch to match JVM iirc.

[ephemient]

I see harmony_regex tests in the kotlin.git/kotlin-native so that checks out

[ephemient]

would be nice if the documentation said anything about it though… my default assumption for native languages is PCRE unless otherwise specified

[Casey Brooks]

yeah, PCRE would have been my guess too

[Dominaezzz]

https://kotlinlang.slack.com/archives/C3SGXARS6/p1530773500000086

[Dominaezzz]

Doesn't count as docs I guess

[Richard Gomez]

Thanks @Casey Brooks: I was aware that Regex (on JVM) used the Java Pattern syntax, but it wasn't clear from the text that Regex = Pattern.

Represents a compiled regular expression. Provides functions to match strings in text with a pattern, replace the found occurrences and split text around matches.

For pattern syntax reference see Pattern.