backreference

An item in a regular expression equivalent to the text matched by an earlier pattern in the expression.

Noun

  1. An item in a regular expression equivalent to the text matched by an earlier pattern in the expression.
    • The third part of the regular expression, \1, is the backreference and tells ColdFusion to refer back to the first subexpression[…] - 2003, Rob Brooks-Bilson, Programming ColdFusion MX:
    • Path traversal occurs when directory backreferences are used in a path to gain access to the parent folder of a subfolder. - 2005, Ivan Ristic, Apache security:

Origin

From back + reference.

Forms

backreferences back-reference

Verb

  1. To access (the text matched by an earlier pattern in a regular expression).
    • By wrapping it in parentheses, the attributes can be reused by backreferencing this part of the pattern[…] - 2009, Larry Ullman, Ruby: Visual QuickStart Guide, page 237:
    • It doesn't change what the part matches, so /\d+/ and /(\d+)/ will still match as many digits as possible, but in the latter case they will be remembered in a special variable to be backreferenced later. - 2012, Tom...

Forms

backreferences backreferencing backreferenced back-reference