PerlRegEx vs RegularExpressionsCore Delphi Units
- by Jan Goyvaerts
The RegularExpressionsCore unit that is part of Delphi XE is based on the latest class-based PerlRegEx unit that I developed. Embarcadero only made a few changes to the unit. These changes are insignificant enough that code written for earlier versions of Delphi using the class-based PerlRegEx unit will work just the same with Delphi XE.
The unit was renamed from PerlRegEx to RegularExpressionsCore. When migrating your code to Delphi XE, you can choose whether you want to use the new RegularExpressionsCore unit or continue using the PerlRegEx unit in your application. All you need to change is which unit you add to the uses clause in your own units.
Indentation and line breaks in the code were changed to match the style used in the Delphi RTL and VCL code. This does not change the code, but makes it harder to diff the two units.
Literal strings in the unit were separated into their own unit called RegularExpressionsConsts. These strings are only used for error messages that indicate bugs in your code. If your code uses TPerlRegEx correctly then the user should not see any of these strings.
My code uses assertions to check for out of bounds parameters, while Embarcadero uses exceptions. Again, if you use TPerlRegEx correctly, you should never get any assertions or exceptions. The Compile method raises an exception if the regular expression is invalid in both my original TPerlRegEx component and Embarcadero’s version. If your code allows the user to provide the regular expression, you should explicitly call Compile and catch any exceptions it raises so you can tell the user there is a problem with the regular expression. Even with user-provided regular expressions, you shouldn’t get any other assertions or exceptions if your code is correct.
Note that Embarcadero owns all the rights to their RegularExpressionsCore unit. Like all the other RTL and VCL units, this unit cannot be distributed by myself or anyone other than Embarcadero. I do retain the rights to my original PerlRegEx unit which I will continue to make available for those using older versions of Delphi.
