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Is there an existing robust Java library which implements a fairly substantial subset of Perl regular expression syntax?

Background:

I wish to implement a file renamer where renaming is done using Perl regular expressions.

The trick is that the project containing said renamer as a component is, currently, 100% in Java in Windows.

NOTES:

I am setting aside the obvious workaround of "install Strawberry Perl; write the whole renamer in Perl (or teach Perl to the developer doing Java coding), pass a list of files to rename to the Perl renamer script via a system call from Java" as too crafty and too obvious :)

Also, please don't offer comparisons of how Java's latest and greatest RegEx engine is already good enough to do most of what Perl RegEx does - I'm fairly aware of its functionality (and can google); thus I already know that said statement might even be true; it is, however, irrelevant to my interest in seeing real Perl RegEx syntax implemented as a Java library.

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  • How much is "fairly substantial"? The rest of your question reads like that would be in the 95% and above ballpark. Commented Dec 15, 2009 at 20:27
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    At the very least, you won't be able to get (?{ code }) support without a Perl interpreter. Commented Dec 15, 2009 at 20:28
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    Can you access PCRE (perl compatible regex) through JNI (Java Native Interface)? Not much of a Java hacker, so I don't know what's involved. Commented Dec 15, 2009 at 20:35
  • JNI to Perl... shudder. Worst of both worlds... Commented Dec 15, 2009 at 20:43
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    @DVK You would be writing C code that interfaces with both the JVM and the Perl engine. So you would need convert Java's String object into a char pointer, then convert that into a Perl SV structure, call the regexp function, get another SV back, then convert that back to a char pointer, and finally back into a String object. It could be done, but I do not think it would be worth the trouble. Commented Dec 15, 2009 at 20:58

3 Answers 3

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7

Have you tried JRegex? It boasts Perl 5.6 compatibility and doesn't have the worries of linking PCRE in directly.

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4 Comments

Thanks! Would you happen to know how (a) robust and (b) fast is it?
~10% faster than java.util.regex, much slower than native Perl.
Should be fairly robust. Haven't tested it for named grouping or anything.
Sux re: performance. I'm probably just going to batch off the list of strings and regexes and call a Perl script on the batch then... +1 nevertheless for excellent suggestion!
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For maximum Perl compatibility you would need to actually use Perl. You can do that using Inline::Java::Callback, which is distributed as part of the Inline::Java module.

See also: How can I call Perl from Java?

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The library you are looking for is the Apache ORO library, it is specifically implemented to handle Perl5 regular expressions.

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Just as a note, the stable version only supports Perl5.003 as per their docs. But a good option nonetheless!

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