Regular expression for a non-zero hex value.

Question

Hello,

I am looking for a regular expression to determine when any of the values in a 32-bit hex value is non-zero.

The data patterns look like 0x00000000 and I want to know when any of the digits is non-zero. For example, if 0x00001000 or 0x10000000 or 0xB000000 would be capture by the regular expression, but not a 0x00000000 pattern. Right now I perform a walking pattern match of

0x[^0]
0x0[^0]
0x00[^0]
...
0x0000000[^0]

This will work, but I much rather have one pattern if possible. Thanks.

Mark

Edit: I didn't mention as the RegEx was not needed in a program, otherwise I would have used a different approach, but I was using the RegEx to search for values in a log file using UltraEdit. I could have developed a program or some other means to search, but I was just being lazy, just being honest. Ben S solution worked both in UltraEdit and Rad Software Regular Expression Designer. rampion solution didn't work in either tool, not sure why.

Answer 1

Why not test the hex value against zero? Simpler, faster, more readable.

If a regular expressiong is really necessary, 0x0*[1-9a-fA-F][0-9a-fA-F]* should do it.

It looks for as many zeros as it can until it finds a non-zero hex value, then gathers the rest of the hex regardless of if it's a zero or not.

Note: this will match any length hex, not just 32 bits.

Answer 2

Surely a simple string compare and if it DOES NOT EQUAL "0x00000000" you've got your match.

Am I over simplifying it? The is only one FALSE case, right? When the string is "0x00000000"?

Don't use RegEx unless you have to.

Answer 3

/0x0*[^0]/

Answer 4

/0x0*[1-9a-fA-F][0-9a-fA-F]*/

<atom>* means match the atom 0 or more times, so this pattern matches the 0x prefix, followed by 0 or more 0s, followed by a non-zero hex, followed by some hex.

Answer 5

Why not try something slighly different. Testing for a non-zero hex is much harder than testing for a zero hex. So test for zero and manually do the not.

bool IsNonZeroHex(string input) {
  return !Regex.IsMatch(input, "^0x(0*)$");
}

Answer 6

I think this should cover all cases (if it really has to be a regex):

^0x(?=0*[1-9a-fA-F]0*)[0-9a-fA-F]{8}$

Answer 7

/0x0{0,7}[^0]/

'0x', followed by zero to seven '0', followed by something that is not '0'