"backreference" meaning in All languages combined

See backreference on Wiktionary

Noun [English]

Forms: backreferences [plural]
Etymology: From back + reference. Etymology templates: {{compound|en|back|reference}} back + reference Head templates: {{en-noun}} backreference (plural backreferences)
  1. (regular expressions) An item in a regular expression equivalent to the text matched by an earlier pattern in the expression. Categories (topical): Regular expressions
    Sense id: en-backreference-en-noun-jRlprhRd Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 47 53
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: back-reference

Verb [English]

Forms: backreferences [present, singular, third-person], backreferencing [participle, present], backreferenced [participle, past], backreferenced [past]
Etymology: From back + reference. Etymology templates: {{compound|en|back|reference}} back + reference Head templates: {{en-verb}} backreference (third-person singular simple present backreferences, present participle backreferencing, simple past and past participle backreferenced)
  1. (regular expressions, transitive) To access (the text matched by an earlier pattern in a regular expression). Tags: transitive Categories (topical): Regular expressions
    Sense id: en-backreference-en-verb-51TQvmhz Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 47 53
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: back-reference

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for backreference meaning in All languages combined (4.1kB)

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  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "back",
        "3": "reference"
      },
      "expansion": "back + reference",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From back + reference.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "backreferences",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
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    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "backreference (plural backreferences)",
      "name": "en-noun"
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  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Regular expressions",
          "orig": "en:Regular expressions",
          "parents": [
            "Computing",
            "Programming",
            "Technology",
            "Software engineering",
            "All topics",
            "Computer science",
            "Engineering",
            "Software",
            "Fundamental",
            "Sciences",
            "Applied sciences",
            "Media",
            "Communication"
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          "source": "w"
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        {
          "_dis": "47 53",
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2003, Rob Brooks-Bilson, Programming ColdFusion MX",
          "text": "The third part of the regular expression, \\1, is the backreference and tells ColdFusion to refer back to the first subexpression[…]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2005, Ivan Ristic, Apache security",
          "text": "Path traversal occurs when directory backreferences are used in a path to gain access to the parent folder of a subfolder.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An item in a regular expression equivalent to the text matched by an earlier pattern in the expression."
      ],
      "id": "en-backreference-en-noun-jRlprhRd",
      "links": [
        [
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        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "regular expressions",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(regular expressions) An item in a regular expression equivalent to the text matched by an earlier pattern in the expression."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "back-reference"
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  ],
  "word": "backreference"
}

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  "etymology_text": "From back + reference.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "backreferences",
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    },
    {
      "form": "backreferencing",
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      "form": "backreferenced",
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    {
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  "head_templates": [
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      ],
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        {
          "ref": "2009, Larry Ullman, Ruby: Visual QuickStart Guide, page 237",
          "text": "By wrapping it in parentheses, the attributes can be reused by backreferencing this part of the pattern[…]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012, Tom Christiansen, brian d foy, Larry Wall, Programming Perl, page 46",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To access (the text matched by an earlier pattern in a regular expression)."
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      "id": "en-backreference-en-verb-51TQvmhz",
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(regular expressions, transitive) To access (the text matched by an earlier pattern in a regular expression)."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
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    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "back-reference"
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{
  "categories": [
    "English compound terms",
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "English verbs"
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  ],
  "etymology_text": "From back + reference.",
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        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned",
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          "ref": "2003, Rob Brooks-Bilson, Programming ColdFusion MX",
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        },
        {
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          "text": "Path traversal occurs when directory backreferences are used in a path to gain access to the parent folder of a subfolder.",
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        "(regular expressions) An item in a regular expression equivalent to the text matched by an earlier pattern in the expression."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "back-reference"
    }
  ],
  "word": "backreference"
}

{
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    "English entries with incorrect language header",
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    "English nouns",
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  ],
  "etymology_text": "From back + reference.",
  "forms": [
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      "form": "backreferences",
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    {
      "form": "backreferencing",
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  "lang_code": "en",
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        "English transitive verbs",
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          "ref": "2009, Larry Ullman, Ruby: Visual QuickStart Guide, page 237",
          "text": "By wrapping it in parentheses, the attributes can be reused by backreferencing this part of the pattern[…]",
          "type": "quotation"
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        {
          "ref": "2012, Tom Christiansen, brian d foy, Larry Wall, Programming Perl, page 46",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To access (the text matched by an earlier pattern in a regular expression)."
      ],
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        [
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        "(regular expressions, transitive) To access (the text matched by an earlier pattern in a regular expression)."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
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    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "back-reference"
    }
  ],
  "word": "backreference"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.