id	summary	reporter	owner	description	type	status	milestone	component	version	severity	resolution	keywords	cc
2519	Request for an empty function to be added to boost::xpressive::basic_regex	mgoldshteyn@…	Eric Niebler	"Currently the only way to tell if a regex object is empty (i.e., not containing a compiled regex) is to compare the result of its regex_id() function to zero. This is not intuitive to a reader of such code without explicit comments.

It would be much easier to read said code if basic_regex supplied an empty function which internally performed this test. This would transform code that looks like:

if (re.regex_id()!=0)
  do_something(re);

to code that reads:

if (!re.empty())
  do_something(re);

which is much more intuitive. It seems to me to be a trivial change that makes xpressive regexes even more similar to the regular boost::regex in terms of interface, so it's a win/win.

Thanks for your consideration,

Michael Goldshteyn
"	Feature Requests	closed	Boost 1.38.0	xpressive	Boost 1.37.0	Problem	wontfix	empty xpressive regex	eric@…