Meta Characters Used in Patterns

.

(dot) Matches any character.

^

(caret) Matches the null string at the beginning of the line.

$

Matches the null string at the end of the line.

@(number)

Matches the null string before the numberth character of a line.

@(.)

Matches the null string before the current cursor position.

@(t)

Matches the null string before the next tab stop.

[characters]

Matches any one of the characters enclosed by the square brackets. (character class)

[^characters]

Matches any one character which is not enclosed by the square brackets. (character class)

*

Matches the preceding pattern zero or more times. (closure)

&

Only special in the replacement text of a Substitute command. It will be expanded into the text matched.

-

Only special within the square brackets of a character class above. The syntax character1-character2 is an abbreviation to mean all characters between character1 and character2 inclusive. For example [a-z0-9].