pattern_id=prxparse('/\b(DEMENTIA|AD DEM|AD WITH|ADVANCED DEM|ALZH|ALZHEIMER\'S|ALZHEIMERS|DEMEN|DEMENTIA\- ALZH|DEMETIA|DEMENI|BPSD|BPDS|BSPD|BSDP|
DEMENTAI|H\/O DEMENETIA)\b/i');
I am using the above code to identify some keywords. One of the keywords (ALZHEIMER'S
) has apostrophe " ' " in it. I am trying to mask it by using a preceding backslash as I do for other special characters (such as "-") but it is not working.
Use double quotes on the outside:
pattern_id=prxparse("/\b(DEMENTIA|AD DEM|AD WITH|ADVANCED DEM|ALZH|ALZHEIMER\'S|ALZHEIMERS|DEMEN|DEMENTIA\- ALZH|DEMETIA|DEMENI|BPSD|BPDS|BSPD|BSDP|
DEMENTAI|H\/O DEMENETIA)\b/i");
You problem has nothing to do with REGEX, but with basic syntax of how to construct a string constant.
If the character you are using on the outside to indicate a string constant (either the single quote character, ', or the double quote character, ") appears in the string then it needs to be doubled up.
So to make a string constant that contains ALZHEIMER'S you would need to use one of these two methods:
"ALZHEIMER'S"
'ALZHEIMER''S'
In your case you should change the \' to '' instead.
Thanks Tom.
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