This page is a snapshot from the LWG issues list, see the Library Active Issues List for more information and the meaning of C++17 status.

### 2584. `<regex>` ECMAScript `IdentityEscape` is ambiguous

Section: 32.12 [re.grammar] Status: C++17 Submitter: Billy O'Neal III Opened: 2016-01-13 Last modified: 2017-07-30

Priority: 2

View other active issues in [re.grammar].

View all other issues in [re.grammar].

View all issues with C++17 status.

Discussion:

Stephan and I are seeing differences in implementation for how non-special characters should be handled in the `IdentityEscape` part of the ECMAScript grammar. For example:

>     #include <stdio.h>
>     #include <iostream>
>     #ifdef USE_BOOST
>     #include <boost/regex.hpp>
>     using namespace boost;
>     #else
>     #include <regex>
>     #endif
>     using namespace std;

>     int main() {
>       try {
>         const regex r("\\z");
>         cout << "Constructed \\z." << endl;
>         if (regex_match("z", r))
>           cout << "Matches z" << endl;
>       } catch (const regex_error& e) {
>           cout << e.what() << endl;
>       }
>     }

libstdc++, boost, and browsers I tested with (Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome) all happily interpret `\z`, which otherwise has no meaning, as an identity character escape for the letter `z`. libc++ and msvc++ say that this is invalid, and throw `regex_error` with `error_escape`.

ECMAScript 3 (which is what C++ currently points to) seems to agree with libc++ and msvc++:

>     IdentityEscape ::
>       SourceCharacter but not IdentifierPart

>     IdentifierPart ::
>       IdentifierStart
>       UnicodeCombiningMark
>       UnicodeDigit
>       UnicodeConnectorPunctuation
>       \ UnicodeEscapeSequence

>     IdentifierStart ::
>       UnicodeLetter
>       $
>       _
>       \ UnicodeEscapeSequence

But this doesn't make any sense — it prohibits things like `\$` which users absolutely need to be able to escape. So let's look at ECMAScript 6. I believe this says much the same thing, but updates the spec to better handle Unicode by referencing what the Unicode standard says is an identifier character:

>     IdentityEscape ::
>       SyntaxCharacter
>       /
>       SourceCharacter but not UnicodeIDContinue

>     UnicodeIDContinue ::
>       any Unicode code point with the Unicode property "ID_Continue", "Other_ID_Continue", or "Other_ID_Start"

However, ECMAScript 6 has an appendix B defining "additional features for web browsers" which says:

>     IdentityEscape ::
>       SourceCharacter but not c

which appears to agree with what libstdc++, boost, and browsers are doing.

What should be the correct behavior here?

[2016-08, Chicago]

Monday PM: Move to tentatively ready

Proposed resolution:

This wording is relative to N4567.

1. Change 32.12 [re.grammar]/3 as indicated:

   > -3- The following productions within the ECMAScript grammar are modified as follows:

   > >     ClassAtom ::
   > >       -
   > >       ClassAtomNoDash
   > >       ClassAtomExClass
   > >       ClassAtomCollatingElement
   > >       ClassAtomEquivalence

   > >     IdentityEscape ::
   > >       SourceCharacter but not c