Word boundary issue with a generic subpattern next to it

[stribizhev]

Description:

The word boundary as a BOW (beginning of word) does not work properly in Notepad++.

Current Behavior:

Using \b\w as a regex pattern, I'd expect Notepad++ to match h and w in hello world string. However, all the letters are matched:

The issue is repro with the following patterns:

\b[a-z]
\b\pL
\<[[:alpha:]]
\b[[:alpha:]]
\b[[:alnum:]]

I suspect the meaning of a BOW (beginning of word) is lost when there is only a word boundary followed by a generic subpattern (a character class, a shorthand character class, a POSIX character class.

If there is a literal symbol following the word boundary, all works as expected:

\bw

highlights w in hello world.

Expected behavior: \b\w should only match h and w in hello world.

Note: The end of word (EOW) meaning works right: \w\b matches o and d in hello world as expected.

Notepad version: v.6.8.8 Build time: Dec 2015 - 01:11:37

[MetaChuh]

we are closing this issue due to multiple newer notepad++ versions since it was filed.

please update your notepad++ to the latest version Notepad++ 7.6.6 and migrate or reinstall your plugins.
if your issue still persists, and it is still of relevance to you, please feel free to file a new issue as detailed and reproducible as possible.

thank you for your help and best regards.

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[stribizhev]

Tried in Notepad++ v.7.7 - the issue still exists. There is no word boundary between h and e, why does \b\w find an e match? Try replacing \b\w with x against a he string, and it will be turned to xx instead of xe.

[ghost]

Issue still present in v7.8.4 64-bit on Windows.

[sasumner]

Related: #6194

[sasumner]

@OctaneTwisted This has to do with how multiple searches happen as each search is independent and happens with the starting point being the ending point of the last search.