From: Ross Bamford <rosco@...>
Date: 2005-12-22T08:37:49+09:00
Subject: Re: Regex: Up for a challenge?

On Wed, 21 Dec 2005 23:03:00 -0000, basi <basi_lio@hotmail.com> wrote:

> Hello,
> Just having an outstandingly hard time to even come close to being able
> to translate the following string sequences in one or a series of
> regular expressions. These are allowable prefix combinations in a
> language I'm doing some text analysis on.
>
> i pa(ki) pag
> ma i ka pa(ki) pag
> ma pa ka
> ma(ki) pag ka
> man
> m(an) ag ka sin
> m(an) ag kan(da)
> m(an) ag si(pag)
> m(an) ag pa
>
> The first one allows the following choices:
> i, pa, pag, ipa, ipag, ipapag, papag, ipaki, ipakipag, paki, pakipag
>
> The syllable inside parentheses can only be selected if the syllable or
> letter it is attached to is selected.
>

Maybe these are a bit naive, but they seem to (?) work for the tests I  
could come up with...

1) /\Ai?(pa(ki)?)?(pag)?\Z/
2) /\A(ma)?(i)?(ka)?(pa(ki)?)?(pag)?\Z/
3) /(ma)?(pa)?(ka)?/
4) /\A(ma(ki)?)?(pag)?(ka)?\Z/
5) /man/
6) /\A(m(an)?)?(ag)?(ka)?(sin)?\Z/
7) /\A(m(an)?)?(ag)?(kan(da)?)?\Z/
8) /\A(m(an)?)?(ag)?(si(pag)?)?\Z/
9) /\A(m(an)?)?(ag)?(pa)?\Z/

-- 
Ross Bamford - rosco@roscopeco.remove.co.uk