backreference

plural backreferences · alternative back-reference

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

   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

   1 more example

   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

present singular third person backreferences · participle present backreferencing · participle past backreferenced · past backreferenced · alternative back-reference

1. transitiveregular expressionsTo 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

   1 more example

   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 Christiansen, brian d foy^([sic]), Larry Wall, Programming Perl, page 46