Abbreviations such as \d instead of [0-9] are allowed. The following abbreviations are recognized:
| Abbreviation | Expansion | Matches | 
|---|---|---|
| \a | ([a-zA-Z0-9]) | Any alphanumeric character | 
| \b | ([ \t]) | White space (blank) | 
| \c | ([a-zA-Z]) | Any alphabetic character | 
| \d | ([0-9]) | Any decimal digit | 
| \h | ([0-9a-fA-F]) | Any hexadecimal digit | 
| \n | (\r|(\r?\n)) | Newline (both Windows and UNIX) | 
| \q | (\"[^\"]*\")|(\'[^\']*\') | A quoted string (either single or double quotes) | 
| \w | ([a-zA-Z]+) | A simple word | 
| \z | ([0-9]+) | An integer |