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# QRegExpValidator Class Reference
[QtGui module]

The QRegExpValidator class is used to check a string against a regular expression. More...

Inherits QValidator.

### Methods

- __init__ (self, QObject parent)
- __init__ (self, QRegExp rx, QObject parent)
- QRegExp regExp (self)
- setRegExp (self, QRegExp rx)
- (QValidator.State, int pos) validate (self, QString input, int pos)

## Detailed Description

The QRegExpValidator class is used to check a string against a regular expression.

QRegExpValidator uses a regular expression (regexp) to determine whether an input string is Acceptable, Intermediate, or Invalid. The regexp can either be supplied when the QRegExpValidator is constructed, or at a later time.

When QRegExpValidator determines whether a string is Acceptable or not, the regexp is treated as if it begins with the start of string assertion (^) and ends with the end of string assertion ($); the match is against the entire input string, or from the given position if a start position greater than zero is given.

If a string is a prefix of an Acceptable string, it is considered Intermediate. For example, "" and "A" are Intermediate for the regexp [A-Z][0-9] (whereas "_" would be Invalid).

For a brief introduction to Qt's regexp engine, see QRegExp.

Example of use:

         // regexp: optional '-' followed by between 1 and 3 digits
         QRegExp rx("-?\\d{1,3}");
         QValidator *validator = new QRegExpValidator(rx, this);

         QLineEdit *edit = new QLineEdit(this);
         edit->setValidator(validator);

Below we present some examples of validators. In practice they would normally be associated with a widget as in the example above.

         // integers 1 to 9999
         QRegExp rx("[1-9]\\d{0,3}");
         // the validator treats the regexp as "^[1-9]\\d{0,3}$"
         QRegExpValidator v(rx, 0);
         QString s;
         int pos = 0;

         s = "0";     v.validate(s, pos);    // returns Invalid
         s = "12345"; v.validate(s, pos);    // returns Invalid
         s = "1";     v.validate(s, pos);    // returns Acceptable

         rx.setPattern("\\S+");            // one or more non-whitespace characters
         v.setRegExp(rx);
         s = "myfile.txt";  v.validate(s, pos); // Returns Acceptable
         s = "my file.txt"; v.validate(s, pos); // Returns Invalid

         // A, B or C followed by exactly five digits followed by W, X, Y or Z
         rx.setPattern("[A-C]\\d{5}[W-Z]");
         v.setRegExp(rx);
         s = "a12345Z"; v.validate(s, pos);        // Returns Invalid
         s = "A12345Z"; v.validate(s, pos);        // Returns Acceptable
         s = "B12";     v.validate(s, pos);        // Returns Intermediate

         // match most 'readme' files
         rx.setPattern("read\\S?me(\.(txt|asc|1st))?");
         rx.setCaseSensitive(false);
         v.setRegExp(rx);
         s = "readme";      v.validate(s, pos); // Returns Acceptable
         s = "README.1ST";  v.validate(s, pos); // Returns Acceptable
         s = "read me.txt"; v.validate(s, pos); // Returns Invalid
         s = "readm";       v.validate(s, pos); // Returns Intermediate

See also QRegExp, QIntValidator, QDoubleValidator, and Settings Editor Example.

## Method Documentation

### QRegExpValidator.__init__ (self, QObject parent)

The parent argument, if not None, causes self to be owned by Qt instead of PyQt.

Constructs a validator with a parent object that accepts any string (including an empty one) as valid.

### QRegExpValidator.__init__ (self, QRegExp rx, QObject parent)

The parent argument, if not None, causes self to be owned by Qt instead of PyQt.

Constructs a validator with a parent object that accepts all strings that match the regular expression rx.

The match is made against the entire string; e.g. if the regexp is [A-Fa-f0-9]+ it will be treated as ^[A-Fa-f0-9]+$.

### QRegExp QRegExpValidator.regExp (self)

### QRegExpValidator.setRegExp (self, QRegExp rx)

### (QValidator.State, int pos) QRegExpValidator.validate (self, QString input, int pos)

Returns Acceptable if input is matched by the regular expression for this validator, Intermediate if it has matched partially (i.e. could be a valid match if additional valid characters are added), and Invalid if input is not matched.

The pos parameter is set to the length of the input parameter.

For example, if the regular expression is \w\d\d (word-character, digit, digit) then "A57" is Acceptable, "E5" is Intermediate, and "+9" is Invalid.

Reimplemented from QValidator.

See also QRegExp.exactMatch().