[functionList.xml] What do these colons mean?

[hwyml]

In “c-function” node of functionList.xml, there are “[\w:]+” and “([\w]+[\s]*::)?” in mainExpr.

What do these colons mean?

[MAPJe71]

[\w:]+ means “match one or more word characters (i.e. A to Z, a to z, 0 to 9 or an underscore) or a colon”.

([\w]+[\s]*::)? means “optionally (i.e. the question mark at the end) match one or more word characters followed by zero or more white space (Most engines: space, tab, newline, carriage return, vertical tab; .NET, Python 3, JavaScript: any Unicode separator) followed by two colons”.

[hwyml]

Thanks to MAPJe71!
But I don’t understand why there needs colon in C function definition’s head line.

What I say “function definition’s head line” means:
int func(int a, int b)
{
…
}
Then, “int func(int a, int b)” is “function definition’s head line”.

[MAPJe71]

The Notepad++ v6.9.2 parser looks like this:

<parser id="c_function" displayName="C source" commentExpr="((/\*.*?\*)/|(//.*?$))">
	<function
	    mainExpr="^[\t ]*((static|const|virtual)[\s]+)?[\w:]+([\s]+[\w]+)?([\s]+|(\*|\*\*)[\s]+|[\s]+(\*|\*\*)|[\s]+(\*|\*\*)[\s]+)([\w_]+[\s]*::)?(?!(if|while|for))[\w_]+[\s]*\([^\)\(]*\)([\s]*const[\s]*)?[\n\s]*\{"
		displayMode="$functionName">
		<functionName>
			<nameExpr expr="(?!(if|while|for))[\w_~]+[\s]*\("/>
			<nameExpr expr="(?!(if|while|for))[\w_~]+"/>
		</functionName>
	</function>
</parser>

I don’t think this parser works correctly.
I suspect parts of it have been copied from the C/C++ parser hence the double colon i.e. trying to match a class name.
The (?!(if|while|for))[\w_]+ part is for the function name.

[hwyml]

I agree with you. Thank you!

[MAPJe71]

I’m actually in the process of creating the first update/overhaul for functionList.xml.
Unfortunately it will only be a cleanup for the C parser not a correction, yet.

Current state:

<parser displayName="C source" id="c_function" commentExpr="(?s-m:/\*.*?\*/)|(?m-s://.*?$)" >
	<function
		mainExpr="^[\t ]*((?-i:static|const|virtual)\s+)?[\w:]+(\s+\w+)?(\s+|(\*|\*\*)\s+|\s+(\*|\*\*)|\s+(\*|\*\*)\s+)(\w+\s*::)?(?-i:\b(?!if|while|for)\b)\w+\s*\([^\)\(]*\)(\s*const\s*)?[\n\s]*\{"
	>
		<functionName>
			<nameExpr expr="(?-i:\b(?!if|while|for)\b)[\w~]+\s*\(" />
			<nameExpr expr="[\w~]+" />
		</functionName>
	</function>
</parser>