RegEx – reusing subexpressions

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RegEx Subroutines

When you want to use a sub-expression multiple times without rewriting it, you can group it then call it as a subroutine. Subroutines may be called by name, index, or relative position.

Subroutines are supported by PCRE, Perl, Ruby, PHP, Delphi, R, and others. Unfortunately, the .NET Framework is lacking, but there are some PCRE libraries for .NET that you can use instead (such as https://github.com/ltrzesniewski/pcre-net).

Syntax

Here’s how subroutines work: let’s say you have a sub-expression [abc] that you want to repeat three times in a row.

Standard RegEx
Any: [abc][abc][abc]

Subroutine, by Name
Perl:     (?'name'[abc])(?&name)(?&name)
PCRE: (?P<name>[abc])(?P>name)(?P>name)
Ruby:   (?<name>[abc])\g<name>\g<name>

Subroutine, by Index
Perl/PCRE: ([abc])(?1)(?1)
Ruby:          ([abc])\g<1>\g<1>

Subroutine, by Relative Position
Perl:     ([abc])(?-1)(?-1)
PCRE: ([abc])(?-1)(?-1)
Ruby:   ([abc])\g<-1>\g<-1>

Subroutine, Predefined
This defines a subroutine without executing it.
Perl/PCRE: (?(DEFINE)(?'name'[abc]))(?P>name)(?P>name)(?P>name)

Examples

Matches a valid IPv4 address string, from 0.0.0.0 to 255.255.255.255:
((?:25[0-5])|(?:2[0-4][0-9])|(?:[0-1]?[0-9]?[0-9]))\.(?1)\.(?1)\.(?1)

Without subroutines:
((?:25[0-5])|(?:2[0-4][0-9])|(?:[0-1]?[0-9]?[0-9]))\.((?:25[0-5])|(?:2[0-4][0-9])|(?:[0-1]?[0-9]?[0-9]))\.((?:25[0-5])|(?:2[0-4][0-9])|(?:[0-1]?[0-9]?[0-9]))\.((?:25[0-5])|(?:2[0-4][0-9])|(?:[0-1]?[0-9]?[0-9]))

And to solve the original posted problem:
(?<from>(?P<hexnum>[0-9a-fA-F]{1,8}))\s*:\s*(?<to>(?P>hexnum))

More Info

http://regular-expressions.info/subroutine.html
http://regex101.com/

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