.. _functx_escape-for-regex:

=======================
functx:escape-for-regex
======================= 

Escapes regex special characters

Description
~~~~~~~~~~~
The functx:escape-for-regex function escapes a string that you wish to be taken 
literally rather than treated like a regular expression. This is useful when, 
for example, you are calling the built-in fn:replace function and you want any 
periods or parentheses to be treated like literal characters rather than regex 
special characters.

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   :header-rows: 1

   * - **Parameters**
     - **Description**
   * - arg:string()
     - the string to escape

Examples
~~~~~~~~
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   :widths: 50 50
   :header-rows: 1

   * - **XPath**
     - **Results**
   * - functx:escape-for-regex('5.55')
     - 5\.55
   * - functx:escape-for-regex('[abc]')
     - \[abc\]

See Also
~~~~~~~~

.. toctree::
   :titlesonly:
   :glob:

* :ref:`replace`.