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VIDEO: Daily Zap for games played July 16
Report: Pistons, Kings still talking trade for Smith | Spoelstra: No 'regrets' over LeBron leaving | NBA may rethink Draft lottery | Taylor opens up on Love trade talk
No. 1: Report: Kings, Pistons re-open J-Smoove trade talks — A few days before the 2014 Draft, there was buzz that the Pistons had engaged in trade talks with the Sacramento Kings with forward Josh Smith being the top name shifting from one team to another. In the weeks since, there hasn't been much chatter on that front … until now. ESPN.com's Marc Stein reports that the teams have started talking about a J-Smoove swap once again:
The Detroit Pistons and the Sacramento Kings have resumed trade discussions on a deal that could send Josh Smith to Sacramento, according to sources with knowledge of the talks.
Sources told ESPN.com the Kings have continued to express interest in Smith and the parties are on the hunt for a third team that could help facilitate the deal.
As ESPN.com reported last month, Detroit and Sacramento have engaged in trade discussions that would potentially land Smith in the same frontcourt with DeMarcus Cousins and Rudy Gay. Initial talks called for Sacramento to send Jason Thompson and either Derrick Williams or Jason Terry to the Pistons for Smith, but those discussions reached an impasse and were pushed into July along with the rest of both teams' free-agent business, sources said.
Sources said the Pistons also seriously discussed various sign-and-trade scenarios this month that would have landed restricted free agent Greg Monroe in Portland, but the Blazers ultimately pulled themselves out of the race for Monroe by signing free-agent big man Chris Kaman to join Robin Lopez in the Blazers' center rotation.
Kings owner Vivek Ranadive, furthermore, is known to be fond of splashy moves. And trading for Smith, given the lukewarm reviews of his first season with the Pistons, would certainly qualify as bold.
Another potential bonus is Smith's close relationship with Boston Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo, whom Sacramento has been targeting in trade talks for some time.
The Kings, sources say, prefer to trade Terry rather than buy him out of the final year of his contract valued at nearly $6 million, while Terry has said he's interested in a return to the Dallas Mavericks if he's ultimately released and can get to free agency.
VIDEO: Relive some of Josh Smith's best plays as a Piston last season
No. 2: Spoelstra has no 'regrets' about LeBron's departure — As a member of the Miami Heat, LeBron James won his first two championships and raised the team to a level of success it had never previously enjoyed. His coach during that run, Erik Spoelstra, forged a solid relationship with the superstar over time, too. But now that James is back in Cleveland, Spoelstra told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel's Shandel Richardson that he doesn't bemoan James' decision and has only pleasant memories of their time together as coach and player.
Spoelstra, speaking after the Heat's summer-league loss to the Washington Wizards, said he had no ill feelings toward James and his decision to bolt after four seasons in Miami.
"He seemed at peace with the decision," Spoelstra said. "We don't have any regrets. He shouldn't have any regrets. It was a historic four-year run."
"This league does teach you that it's inevitable that there's constant change and you always have to continue to embrace change, adapt with change," Spoelstra said. "This is a big, monumental change that we didn't necessarily anticipate but you have to respect it because when you're a free agent in this league you have the right to make a decision that's best for you and your family. When he made that decision that was best for his family, where his heart is, all you can do from our side is respond with respect and love."
The Heat were in panic-mode for about "two or three" hours after the decision. Spoelstra met with team President Pat Riley and General Manager Andy Elisburg to discuss their options. He described it as a scene from the movie Jerry Maguire, with each making countless phone calls to agents and players on their cell phones.
"Probably, we were all in Pat's office about five minutes just to collect ourselves and then from there it was madness," Spoelstra said. "The board was right there. So we said we better get to work and we didn't leave until after 1 in the morning."
Spoelstra said he's yet to speak with James. At some point, the two plan to talk once everything settles.
"I'm sure there will be a time for that," Spoelstra said. "Again, you forge bonds through competitions and through great experiences like we've had. There will be a time for that. My message wouldn't be any different whenever that time comes."
Even though it was unexpected, the Heat handled the situation easier because of a backup plan. They met with all the new acquisitions before James' announcement, needing just two days to agree to terms with Luol Deng.
"I didn't really try to anticipate one way or another," Spoelstra said. "Pat and I were flying around trying to meet with players as much as we could. Then when we came back, Pat and Andy were able to have a meeting [with James]. The meeting went well and then everything happened pretty quickly on Friday."
No. 3: NBA considering changes to lottery — Much of the discussion in NBA circles last season — and especially as the Philadelphia 76ers went on a 27-game losing skid — was about whether or not "tanking" was harming the overall product of the league. Many theories have been bandied about to make it so the NBA Draft lottery didn't reward blatantly awful teams too much, the foremost theory being a draft "wheel" notion. Our Scott Howard-Cooper reports on a story from Grantland.com's Zach Lowe about the NBA perhaps evening out the Draft lottery odds more:
The NBA is weighing dramatic changes to the lottery intended to further deter tanking, Grantland.com reported Wednesday, noting the shift could take effect as soon as the 2015 drawing to determine the draft order.The proposal, different than the so-called Wheel plan that received attention early last season, calls for at least the four teams with the worst record in the league to have the same chance at landing No. 1 in the ping-pong drawing. While the odds are still open to revision from the current 11 percent, according to the Grantland story by Zach Lowe citing anonymous sources, the numbers would decrease beginning with the club with the fifth-worst finish.
The odds for the team with the best record among the lottery entrants would increase, though, a sign the league wants to give franchises scheduled to pick later a greater chance to jump to near the top on lottery night. The new terms under consideration call for a 2-percent chance to go from 14th to first, the report says, compared to .5 percent in the 2014 drawing.
The suggested plan also calls for the ping-pong balls to determine the order of the first six selections, a change from the process in place of the drawing for the top three, with teams then falling in order based on worst record.
League officials here for summer league and key meetings, including the Board of Governors gathering the day before, made it clear Wednesday that the new proposal is only in the discussion stages. The Competition Committee has not approved anything on the subject, a necessary step before it gets sent to the Board of Governors to be voted on, with the likelihood that whatever makes it out of committee would almost certainly be ratified by the Board.
No. 4: Wolves owner wants Love in Minnesota next season — The biggest name left in terms of player movement this summer isn't a free agent. It's a player under contract with his current team: Minnesota Timberwolves star Kevin Love. The versatile big man has heard his name tossed about in trade talks seemingly since season's end, but his team is truly under no real obligation to deal him. It's that fact that Wolves owner Glen Taylor tried to get across to the NBA public and Timberwolves fans as he spoke with NBA TV yesterday at Summer League in Las Vegas:
VIDEO: Glen Taylor addresses the Kevin Love trade talks
SOME RANDOM HEADLINES: He's not saying it's a good thing or a bad thing, but new Nets coach Lionel Hollins says the pace in Memphis is the 'stone age' when compared to New York … The Magic are finalizing a deal to bring Luke Ridnour aboard … Donatas Motiejunas has been pretty impressive in Summer League thus far … Anthony Morrow is hoping to fill the Thunder's long-held need for 3-point shooting … LaMarcus Aldridge reportedly withdrew from USA Basketball consideration so he could rest upc some for the season … Cool, documentary-style series on Charlie Villanueva and his quest for another NBA contract. Here's Part I, and here's Part II
ICYMI of The Night: The Summer League Horry Scale is getting a workout! Two nights ago, Jordan Clarkson had a buzzer-beating, game-winning tip-in. Last night, Roberto Nelson does one better with an impossible, game-winning, buzzer-beating 3-pointer for the Hornets …
VIDEO: Roberto Nelson of the Hornets wins the game on a 3-pointer at the horn


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The Oklahoma Wheat Commission has partnered with the Oklahoma Wheat Research Foundation to donate $100,000 to Oklahoma State University as a way to promote continued wheat improvement in the state.
When matched 2:1 under the university's Pickens Legacy Scholarship Match program, the result will be a $300,000 endowment that will produce approximately $15,000 per year in perpetual annual funding.
Dave Porter, head of OSU's department of plant and soil sciences on the Stillwater campus, said the donation is a much-needed and creative way to leverage funds made available through the wheat checkoff program to advance the Oklahoma wheat industry.
"We truly appreciate the tremendous support OSU has received from the Oklahoma Wheat Commission, the Oklahoma Wheat Research Foundation and our Oklahoma wheat producers," he said.
The focus of the donation is to provide a research fellowship to an OSU graduate student working on wheat improvement for Oklahoma producers. Porter said this graduate student research fellowship will help educate the next generation of wheat breeders responsible for developing the new high-performance varieties that producers expect from OSU's Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources.
Oklahoma is the fourth-largest wheat-producing state in the nation, producing 127.7 million bushels annually between 2005 and 2009, on average. Wheat improvement research in Oklahoma is driven by an interdisciplinary team of division scientists charged with developing highly adaptable wheat cultivars with marketable grain quality.
"This source of funding is critical to help maintain the momentum of a very productive wheat improvement program for Oklahoma," Porter said.
The OSU-developed wheat variety Endurance is the most planted variety in Oklahoma, accounting for nearly one in every five acres. Two other OSU-developed varieties, Duster and OK Bullet, were the third and fourth most utilized varieties for 2010, coming in right behind Jagger.
"Wheat is a major driver of the Oklahoma economy, and the development of new, genetically improved cultivars by our OSU Wheat Improvement Team is the lifeblood of this critically important agricultural sector," Porter said.
Program support for the OSU Wheat Improvement Team is administered by the division's statewide Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station system, the Oklahoma Wheat Commission and the Oklahoma Wheat Research Foundation.


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There are thousands of fair isle designs in the world, but often none of them are exactly what you would make if left to your own devices. It's exciting to turn your imagination into reality and also satisfying to contribute a unique design to an historical tradition. I created this design to circle around my Tulip Socks, but fair isle can show up on yokes, cuffs, hats, mittens, anywhere!
Graph Paper
The most important thing you need is knitting graph paper. Knitting graph paper is specially proportioned to the stitches of your knitting, so that what you create on the paper won't be distorted when you knit it. You'll need to know the gauge of your knitting, both stitches and rows per 4 inches.
There are probably lots of web sites where you can download knitting graph paper, but a couple of free ones are Printable Paper and The Knitting Site, which offers options for several different stitch to gauge ratios.
Repeat Size
Now consider what size your design will be. The Tulip Socks, for example, are 72 stitches around, so whatever I designed had to divide into 72 evenly. I could have created a 36 stitch design that would have repeated twice around the sock, or an 18 stitch design that would have repeated 4 times around, etc. I decided on a 12 stitch design that repeats 6 times. It's also common to use several repeat sizes in one design. For example, a smaller 3 stitch motif above or below the 12 stitch design would repeat 24 times.
Whatever you decide, mark the outer borders of your repeat size on the graph paper.
You can sketch your designs in Photoshop, or, if you prefer, with pencils, markers or paint. I'm a fairly neat knitter, but a seriously messy designer!
There are a few things to keep in mind as you sketch out your design. First of all, you may want to consider how the design will be centered on the garment. The right side of the design is also the beginning of the round. So, if the beginning of the round is centered in the middle of the back or front and you want the motif to be at the center of the piece, you need to start the design in the middle of the motif.
The design for Giacomo's Baby Hat is a good example of this concept. See how the flower begins at the right side with the left half of the flower? This is so the flower will end up centered at the front of the hat.
2 Colors Per Row
In traditional fair isle, the rule is that there are never more than 2 colors per row. Unless you have a third hand, it's a good rule. By following it, you'll always have the yarn you need in one hand or the other.
Short Floats
When one color continues uninterrupted for awhile (everyone has his/her own definition of "awhile" – mine is 5 stitches, others say an inch), you need to wrap the stitch so the strand, or "float", across the back doesn't get too long. When designing your fair isle, you may want to minimize the occurrence of long stretches of one color.
For my Tulip Socks, I was concerned about toes getting snagged an long floats, so I made sure that there were never more than 5 stitches in a row of one color. That's why the background color pops up as designs inside the tulip and the leaves.
The Art of Fair Isle Knitting is a wonderful encyclopedia of fair isle techniques, color ideas and theories, and traditional design. It's a classic!
Victoria and Albert Museum's awesome collection online. I searched the term "knitted" and found 9 pages of unusual garments with historical and artistic value.
These are Spanish silk and silver gloves from the 16th century.
COLOURlovers is a cool website where color fans from around the world converge to share palette and pattern ideas. Track trends, read in-depth articles, chat with other color lovers, search palettes by keyword, endless color inspiration!


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He might be barely into his mid-20s, but Sprint Cup driver Austin Dillon has already found himself smack dab in the middle of NASCAR's brightest spotlight. You could say Dillon was born to be a driver. His grandfather is legendary team owner Richard Childress and his father Mike Dillon is the general manager at Richard Childress Racing (RCR). Plus, his younger brother Ty is one of the sport's rising stars.
But the heat was really turned up in 2014 when Dillon put the iconic #3 car back into the Cup Series for the first time since its Hall of Fame driver Dale Earnhardt Sr., was tragically killed during the 2001 Daytona 500. Although Dillon won the Nationwide (now Xfinity) Series championship in 2013, nothing could compare to being linked to NASCAR royalty in such a visible way.
In this Inspiring Athletes interview, Dillon talks about how he's handled the pressure, what it's like racing against his younger brother, why Motor Racing Outreach is so important to his spiritual life, and how his Christian faith guides him:
Chad Bonham: Have you ever felt a heavy sense of responsibility or pressure while bringing the iconic #3 car back to the track?
Austin Dillon: There's definitely a sense of responsibility and it's something I take very seriously. It's an honor. There's pressure, but that's a good thing and something I feel very fortunate to have. I take great responsibility for it. Not every number gives you pressure. This number, the No. 3, means so much. It pushes me to be better, to go to the gym, to talk to my crew chief Gil Martin, and to be with the guys on the team every day. The number pushes me and that's a good thing.
Bonham: Do you feel like you've been able to manage expectations from the fans, RCR and yourself?
Dillon: I think so. When it comes down to it you have to be true to yourself and the rest falls into place.
Bonham: What has been the most memorable moment thus far since making the move to Sprint Cup?
Dillon: I think it would be the start of my rookie season when there was so much pressure, so many expectations, and so much excitement surrounding the return of the No. 3 to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, and then we went out and won the pole for the Daytona 500. That was a very special moment.
Bonham: How did you first meet (RCR crew member) Ray Wright and how has that friendship benefited you personally and professionally?
Dillon: I met Ray Wright at Forsyth Country Day School. He was so inspirational to me and all of the guys on the soccer team. He was able to really push me to meet my fitness goals. My dad recognized that Ray had a unique ability of being able to motivate people and convinced him to come work at RCR in our pit department where he works with Paul Menard's team.
Bonham: How does faith play into your life both on and off the racetrack?
Dillon: Faith is huge and I am a proud Christian. I think it would be difficult to have a career like the one we have without having faith.
Bonham: What is the significance of having an organization like MRO around throughout the race weekends?
Dillon: Motor Racing Outreach is great. They provide a chapel service every Sunday for drivers, wives, crew members, and others in the NASCAR industry so that we can gather and celebrate our faith. It's important to me to have this time before the race on Sundays. They also provide other services such as at-track childcare and counseling.
Bonham: In those times when you've raced against your brother Ty, has it been easy or difficult to separate yourself from that relationship and race him hard just like any other driver?
Dillon: Ty and I are extremely competitive. We don't go soft on each other. We push each other, which ultimately helps us both. We race against each other in everything we do, whether it's a foot race to the car when we go out to a restaurant at night or on the racetrack. It's in the back of my mind that he's on the track with me, but we're both competitive and want to win.
Bonham: Are there any older drivers in the Sprint Cup series that have been mentors to you during the early stages of your career? If so, what kind of advice have you received from them?
Dillon: I lean on a lot of drivers. I have a dirt racing background so I gravitate towards asking for advice from drivers who also dirt race, people like Clint Bowyer since dirt racers seem to have a similar driving style and like the car set up similarly.
Bonham: If you weren't racing, what do you think you would be doing right now?
Dillon: I would own a ranch where people could come and hunt. It would be fun and laid back every day.
To follow Austin Dillon throughout the NASCAR season, visit his race team's official website at www.rcrracing.com.
And pick up a copy of Faith in the Fast Lane: How NASCAR Found Jesus to read about how the Christian faith became so prevalent within the sport.
Turner Gill has seen just about everything in his days as a top-rated college quarterback and his experiences as a coach at various levels. At Nebraska, he led the Cornhuskers to three Big Eight championships but painfully fell short of a national title. Back at Nebraska as an assistant, he celebrated with legendary head coach Tom Osborne during three championship seasons. And then, he stepped out on his with mixed results—an impressive turnaround at Buffalo University, a disappointing tenure at Kansas University and his current Football Championship Series (FCS) playoff run at Liberty University.
But not much have that has mattered nearly as much as a decision he made nearly 30 years ago while playing in the Canadian Football League for the Montreal Alouettes. That decision to follow Jesus has changed his perspective on winning and losing and everything in between.
In this Inspiring Athletes interview, Gill talks about the glory days at Nebraska, how he deals with the ups and downs of the coaching profession, and the job that will always take first priority in his life:
Chad Bonham: Many were surprised when you chose Nebraska over Oklahoma and Texas. So how did you get from Fort Worth to Lincoln?
Turner Gill: There's no question God has His hands on (the decision). Tom Osborne was the main reason I chose to come to Nebraska. Had he not been there, I would not have chosen that school. It was because of his genuineness, his trustworthiness and his intelligence. I knew he was going to make me a better man. That was the number one thing that I was looking for. And no doubt, I knew he was going to develop me into the player and the quarterback that I wanted to be and needed to be at that time.
Bonham: What was the first thing that caught your attention when you arrived on campus that first year?
Gill: There were lots and lots of players. We had a freshman team and there were over a hundred players and there were another hundred players on the varsity team. There were two hundred or so players at Nebraska ready to play some football. That was a wow factor. I came from a big high school but we didn't have that many players. So that was the first thing that struck me.
Bonham: Talk about the high expectations surrounding Nebraska football as you headed into your senior season.
Gill: Right after my junior season, I had to decide if I was going to play professional baseball or stay for my senior year. I decided against it because I knew we had a great opportunity to go undefeated and win it all. That was all we talked about on that team. We wanted to be the national champions and I wanted to be a part of that. But I wanted it more for Tom Osborne than I wanted it for myself or for my teammates.
Bonham: Coach Osborne famously went for the two-point conversion at the end of the Orange Bowl against Miami, which was essentially for the National Championship.
Gill: To this day, I'm still glad that he went for two points. I called timeout myself and had a discussion with him about going for two. We wanted to go undefeated. That was our goal. We didn't want to go 12-0-1. We wanted to be 13-0. That was our mentality. Obviously we came inches short. It was a great game for college football. That wasn't just a defining game for the University of Miami and Nebraska. I think it brought more attention to college football.
Bonham: You didn't accept Christ until after your college days were over. Talk about what happened in December of 1985.
Gill: I had a dream to play either professional football or baseball. I had the opportunity play football in Canada and have all the money and the fame and the glory, but something was missing. I just couldn't figure it out. I'd reached my dream. I'd reached the pinnacle of what I wanted as a young man. I had it all and I still didn't feel satisfied. One of my teammates on that team in Montreal was Todd Brown. We also played together at Nebraska. I had always admired him and how he went about his business, but I didn't know what he was all about. One day we sat down and talked about how I was feeling. That's when he shared the Gospel with me. He told me that I needed to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as my personal savior and follow Him everyday. He told me that, just like my playbook, I needed to study the Bible to prepare myself for life. That day, I accepted Christ as my Savior.
Bonham: When you won three national titles as an assistant at Nebraska, do you think your faith allowed to better handle the success?
Gill: Absolutely. I actually thank God that it happened while I was a believer. There's no question the dynamic would have been different if I had achieved that award as a player when I was a nonbeliever. I don't know how I would have responded. As an assistant coach, I was able to realize that it was great in that moment but it was also temporary. Everyone loses sight of that. It's a temporary thing. It's from a worldly standpoint. That's why I'm glad I was a believer when we won those championships. I could understand it a lot better and now, even as I talk about it, I talk about it in a different way. The experience has helped me bring other people to Christ and helped me keep things in the right perspective.
Bonham: You've had some interesting coaching experiences from your time as an assistant at Nebraska and your success at Buffalo to some tough years at Kansas. How do you handle the ups and downs of this profession?
Gill: I'm a follower of Christ. When things were looking bad at Kansas, God was with me in all those times. The Holy Spirit was with me. I thank God for allowing me to go through those things because it helped me to grow and get closer to Him. You might have some obstacles in the world but God has allowed those obstacles to be placed there so you can become more intimate with Him and find out if you really trust Him. Are you going to follow Him or are you not going to follow Him? I think that situation really helped me grow closer to the Lord, to my wife and to the people who are most important to me.
Bonham: You really seem to be enjoying your time at Liberty University.
Gill: It's been a great experience. I'm here to glorify God. I'm here to do the best I can do according to the strength and ability that God has given me. I'm also here to help others get to know Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. That's the ultimate thing that God wants all of us to do. Therefore, if there are wins and losses, that doesn't define me. I've always tried to keep things in that perspective and do what Jesus wants me to do. There's a high calling. That's the big picture.
Read more from Turner Gill in the book Husker Legacy (Cross Training Publishing). The book also features past Nebraska players such as Trev Alberts, Josh Brown, Eric Hagg, Roy Helu Jr., Chris Kelsay and Mike Minter, as well as legendary former head coach Tom Osborne and long-time assistant coach Ron Brown.
It doesn't matter if it's the Camping World Truck Series, the Nationwide Series or the Sprint Cup Series. All NASCAR driver David Starr cares about is getting behind the wheel and doing what he's loves best—racing.
Starr has spent most of 16-year career in the Truck Series where he has won four races and collected 117 top-10 finishes. He currently competes in the Nationwide Series for TriStar Motorsports in the #44 and #10 cars. But it was a conversation with Interstate Batteries president Norm Miller that led him to his greatest victory.
In this Inspiring Athletes interview, Starr talks about the family-friendly nature of NASCAR, how one question changed his life and why passion and purpose are starting to look more alike every day:
Chad Bonham: Just like a lot of people in the NASCAR community, family seems to be a very important part of your life.
David Starr: It really is. This is such a great sport. There's so much excitement with the competition on racetrack. The sport has really grown over the years. But one thing about the whole industry is it's definitely a family-oriented sport. Most of the drivers have wives and kids. The sport really brings families together. I meet people all the time who come to races with their parents, their kids, their aunts and uncles. They camp out at the races. It's a common bond for a lot of families out there. I'm very blessed and very honored to a part of this sport.
Bonham: I first heard your testimony as part of an "I Am Second" video piece. Tell me about how Norm Miller helped lead you into a relationship with Christ.
Starr: We grew up in a Catholic church. I come from a family that had a strong faith in God. But I was just like any other typical kid. I got into fights. I got mad. I was competitive. And for a long time, I've just been a kid trying to grow up. When you enter adulthood and you get married and God has blessed you with the talent to be in this sport, it makes you start looking at things differently. Norm approached me years ago and asked me how my relationship was with God. I was like, "Man, that's kind of a strange question." I told them that I grew up going to church but he wanted to know if I was personally connected to God. I started trying to understand and we prayed together and I accepted Jesus into my life. From then, I've tried to live by His Word and tried to do more Bible study and live like Jesus would want me to live. I'm not one that goes out there and tells a lot of people about my faith. If people ask, I'll tell them about it. But I'm a normal person. I make mistakes. I've gotten in some fights after some races. I've very competitive. So when I tell people that I have a personal relationship with God, they're shocked sometimes. But just because I'm a Christian doesn't mean I'm not a competitor. That doesn't change anything. But the Lord has blessed me so much. You have to keep things in perspective. Sometimes we can get lost in what we're doing here with the TV exposure and the sponsors, but we have church every weekend at the track and it's important to have that quality time with the Lord and learn more about His message. Years ago, I used to be all wrapped up in what I do and how I make a living, but now I try to put the Lord first and let everything fall into place after that.
Bonham: There seems to be a wide variety of faith expression in the NASCAR garage from the young group coming up to an older driver like Morgan Shepherd and even in how some are more vocal while others tend to quietly lead by example. How does that make the NASCAR experience unique?
Starr: With Blake Koch and Trevor Bayne and Michael McDowell, you have some guys that are very vocal about their faith. I think that's wonderful. Everybody is different with that. The Lord wants us to spread His spread. Some are comfortable with that and some aren't. I've personally lived by His Word and had a personal relationship with him, but I don't go around and talk to people about their faith. But I think it's wonderful to have drivers like Morgan Shepherd and these younger guys getting the Word out there. It is very diverse. When they do that, I sometimes look at myself and wonder why I haven't been more vocal. But at the end of the day, all that really matters is that you have a personal relationship with Christ. If someone wants to talk about things or if they're struggle, I'll be the first one to go to them and talk to them and pray for them. God is the one who can heal and fix things and guide you in the right direction. So I'm glad that we have a diverse environment. I'm glad for the ones that are putting their faith out there. We have a big audience and it's wonderful that they take advantage of that platform.
Bonham: Do you look at racing as your passion or is there also a sense of purpose that keeps you in the sport even when things might get tough?
Starr: That's a great question. There are a lot of wonderful people out here. You've got to have sponsors. You've got to bring money to the team. It's different than when I first started 16 years ago. I feel like the good Lord has blessed me. I feel like He's trying to use me to spread His Word. I've wanted to do this since I was a little boy. Ever since I can remember, this is all I've ever thought about doing. But God has put me here for a reason.
Bonham: So how do you deal with the uncertainties that come each year?
Starr: You never know sometimes what you're going to do from season to season. But at the end of the day it's in the Lord's hands. He wants me to do what He wants me to do. Norm has taught me that. You put it all in God's hands and He'll put you where He wants you to be. I pray about it. Sometimes I think they're selfish prayers. But I want to continue to do this. It obviously takes a lot of money to do it and God has blessed me with a lot of great people in my racing career. I thank Him for those people and I ask Him to continue to let me do what I love to do. If there's a different direction He wants me to go, then I'll go that way and I'll praise Him for it. You put God first and everything else will fall in place. There was a long time in my life when I didn't put Him first. It was all about racing. As I've gotten older, my perspective has changed through having sons and a wife. None of this will matter when you're not here anymore. I want to win the final race. The final race is being in Heaven. I want to win every race, but more than anything I want to win the race of life. Because I have a relationship with the Lord, I know that I'm going spend eternity with Him when it's all said and done.
Read about the history of the faith movement within NASCAR. Pick up a copy of Faith in the Fast Lane featuring stories and commentary from Richard Petty, Darrell Waltrip, Bobby Labonte, Ned Jarrett, Bobby Allison, Matt Kenseth and many more racing personalities.
The state of Oklahoma is known for its powerhouse football programs, legendary country music stars and rich Native American heritage. Notice the absence of "famous stock car drivers" from that list.
Taylor Berryhill, barely into his 20's, hopes to change that. The Bixby native and Nationwide Series driver has some serious racing genes in his DNA, a support system that includes his father (who doubles as team owner), and a strong faith that is rooted in an equally strong sense of purpose. In this Inspiring Athletes interview, Berryhill talks about how he got into racing, how he hopes to set a trend within his home state and what's even more important than his career on the track:
Chad Bonham: How did you get from Bixby, Oklahoma, to NASCAR?
Tanner Berryhill: There wasn't a whole lot of racing in Bixby, just some dirt racing here and there. I traveled to Texas Motor Speedway every weekend when I was 12 years old to race legends cars and Bandoleros. I did that for about two years and then I started traveling nationally to race. I raced in Tulsa a few times at JRP Speedway when they ran some stuff there. I just kept moving up the ranks. My dad had an Indy Car team when he was 29 and a Craftsman Truck team when he was 33 and an ARCA team from 2004 to 2005 and a Busch Series team from 2006 to 2008.
Bonham: So you got into this because you were exposed to it a young age.
Berryhill: Right. My grand dad raced. His dad raced. My great uncle raced. Everybody raced. I was basically next in line. Pavement was the way to go. My dad knew that if I wanted to make a career out of it, I needed to go to NASCAR rather than dirt racing. Personally, I like dirt racing a little bit more. It's a little more fun.
Bonham: What has been your involvement in the famous Chili Bowl that's held in Tulsa every winter and has featured NASCAR drivers like Tony Stewart, Kasey Kahne, J.J. Yeley and Justin Allgaier?
Berryhill: My grand dad actually used to own the Chili Bowl. I try to come back and do that as much as I can. It's a really fun race.
Bonham: Do you hope that your presence in NASCAR helps encourage more drivers from Oklahoma to get into the sport?
Berryhill: That would be great. I'm actually good friends with Kenzie Ruston from El Reno. She started racing about a year after I did. We raced legends and Bandoleros together. She moved to North Carolina before I did and she's racing in the K&N Series right now and doing really well. I wouldn't be surprised to see her in some truck races or Nationwide races in the future.
Bonham: Talk about the family element of this sport and how that has helped you get through the challenges that come with a racing career.
Berryhill: My dad was my crew chief for the first year and a half that I raced in the Nationwide Series. That was pretty interesting. Then we hired another crew chief. But our team is very family oriented. It's cool. There's strength in family. I'm a big believer that the family that works together will succeed if the right opportunities come along. It's a cool thing for my dad and I to be able to do this together.
Bonham: Where did you attend church in Tulsa?
Berryhill: I miss Life Church in South Tulsa so much. I lived in the neighborhood behind the campus. When I was younger, I rode my bike there. I went there for 10 years before we moved to North Carolina. We were really involved in the youth group "Switch." When I first moved to North Carolina, I was trying to find another church but I couldn't find anything that fit like Life Church. I went to Elevation Church and the first service I went to, (Life Church pastor) Craig Groeschel was preaching. I just thought, "Well, I think I found my church." Steven Furtick is the pastor at Elevation and they're growing big time out on the East Coast. Steven considers Craig his pastor. It's pretty cool to listen to someone who has the same beliefs as Craig does.
Bonham: Expressions of the Christian faith are a pretty common thing in NASCAR. How has that made it more comfortable for you to be in this sport?
Berryhill: I started racing Nationwide when I was 18 years old. It's crazy because there are kids that are younger than me. But what's really helped is having an organization like MRO around. They have the chapel services and they're around the garage if you ever need anything. We get some cool guys to lead worship for us and we have small groups during the weekend. It's been very enjoyable. Being on the road 33 weeks of the year, this becomes your community. You have to get to along with everybody. Racing becomes your life. You still have your friends at home, but you're with these people so much. You have to get along.
Bonham: How do you channel your passion for driving into the greater purpose for why you're here?
Berryhill: That's one of the coolest things about being a racecar driver. Even if its one tweet a day, the platform allows me the opportunity to change someone's life. That's what we're here for. When we're struggling on the track, I try to take myself out of the situation and realize how small these earthly problems are. I love being able to spread the Word. That's my main purpose in life. Driving in NASCAR is icing on the cake.
Follow Tanner Berryhill's racing career by visiting his official website at www.visionracingteam.com


text:
Memory Eternal! + Linda Simon
Memory Eternal! Linda Simon was the longtime secretary for the Fellowship of St. John the Divine in the Diocese of Toledo and the Midwest, and was also involved in numerous other ministries throughout the Diocese and in her church of St. George Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church, Cleveland, Ohio.
Linda was the wife of Richard (deceased); loving mother of Ruth Lynch, Shirley Dheel (Michael), Richard, Jr. (Kathleen) and George (Christine); beloved grandmother of Jason, Nicole, Joseph, Stephanie, Jaclyn, Jenna, Justin, Sara, Michael, Jeremy and Matthew; cherished sister of Joan DuPuis and Sandra Morgan, and Aunt Linda to all. Interment was at St. Theodosius Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, Linda's family suggests memorial tributes to St. George's Sunday School.


text:
emergency beacon corporation is devoted to the design, manufacture, sales and repair of avionics used in search and rescue.
we are a u.s. manufacturer who specializes solely in elts and as a result, no other firm in the world has greater expertise in this field. our products have been designed by people who take elts seriously. our elts are built to work and to last.
- 15 river street • new rochelle
- new york 10801-4351
- tel: (914) 235-9400 • (800) 382-0079
- fax: (914) 576-7075
- unsolicited faxes are not accepted.


text:
Garza and Brewers beat Cubs 5-2
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Matt Garza pitched seven strong innings and Lyle Overbay hit his first homer with Milwaukee as the Brewers defeated the Chicago Cubs 5-2 Friday night.
Carlos Gomez and Ryan Braun each had three hits and a stolen base for the Brewers, who have a Major League best 17-6 record.
Garza (1-2), who pitched part of last season with the Chicago, retired the Cubs in order in four of the first six innings. He gave up two runs and four hits while striking out seven and walking one.
Francisco Rodriguez pitched a scoreless inning to pick up his 10th save in 10 chances.
Cubs starter Carlos Villanueva (1-5) gave up five runs and 11 hits in five innings.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


text:
|By Ajay Budhraja
Article Rating:
|April 1, 2013 09:00 AM EDT
The enhanced adoption of Cloud, Big Data, Mobility is causing more services to be developed and aggregated, hence there is a greater emphasis on Agile for service aggregation. Agile processes have specific methods to manage the rapid development cycles and changing requirements in application development. There are several steps to achieving Agility for the entire lifecycle. The first step is to perform a thorough business analysis and review existing, target business processes. Based on the analysis appropriate services that are reusable can be designed and developed. Services can then be developed at either the Enterprise levels or lower levels. Enterprise services such as email and collaboration have been very popular in organizations and agencies, other services can be developed at the business, application and database levels. The integration and workflow aspects of these services have to be defined and then the services are integrated and assembled with the overall solution.
The focus on Agile solutions and services means continuous feedback and adapability to change. For Cloud, Big Data and Mobility this means not just developing and testing individual services, but also the aggregate services. Many vendors are coming up with "Agile solutions". The term Agile is being added to products like never before hence it is important for organizations to do their due diligence to discover what it means. True Agility is realized when it is leveraged not only in the development, but also in the integration of services. Agile development techniques can be successfully leveraged during the Cloud, Big data and Mobile application development lifecycles. In the waterfall approach projects start with specific requirements and then progress through the phases on the life cycle. An Agile strategy and development approach starting with requirements and working through development can be helpful to demonstrate the releases incrementally and iteratively. The continuous feedback aspects of Agile can reduce the risk of having a conglomeration of services that don't work well together. The focus in Agile is on the product being released on a regular basis and releases being determined by regular user feedback to manage changing requirements. Agile development significantly reduces the risks of coming up with a solution that is not what the customer desired.
The Agile products you want to buy are the ones that support full lifecycle management including development and management for various languages and environments. With custom applications that leverage Cloud and Big Data services, one of the important elements is a powerful graphical user interface to support modeling of business processes and services. Point and click capabilities for deployment and release management are also useful. Powerful version control and release management facilitate tracking of Agile releases and to display the dependencies between various elements within releases. The products should also have powerful reporting and business intelligence capabilities.
Such products should enable users to build applications using the Agile processes quicker and develop end to end business solutions with advanced point and click capabilities. The intent is to hasten release cycles and support regular testing. Many vendors such as IBM, Microsoft, HP have solutions that support such processes. Some of the vendors have procured tools or set up partnerships with existing vendors to enhance their toolsets to support Agile processes.
(This has been extracted from and is reference to Ajay Budhraja's blog.)
- Agile Cloud, Big Data and Mobility
- Mobile Cloud and Big Data – Cloud Power to the Next Level
- Agile Solutions for Cloud, Big Data, Mobility Services
- Executive Leadership for the Cloud, Big Data and Mobility Volcano
- Hybrid Clouds - Beyond the Private Cloud Horizon
- Multi Community Cloud Services - Moving Beyond the Community Cloud
- Enterprise Cloud Governance - Plug & Play for Cloud Services Is Not Enough
- Mobile Cloud with Big Data
- Cloud Leadership to the Next Level
- Lightning in the Clouds, Big Data


text:
- The dot
- Backslash sequences
- Bracketed Character Classes
- Locale, EBCDIC, Unicode and UTF-8
perlrecharclass - Perl Regular Expression Character Classes
The top level documentation about Perl regular expressions is found in perlre.
This manual page discusses the syntax and use of character classes in Perl regular expressions.
A character class is a way of denoting a set of characters in such a way that one character of the set is matched. It's important to remember that: matching a character class consumes exactly one character in the source string. (The source string is the string the regular expression is matched against.)
There are three types of character classes in Perl regular expressions: the dot, backslash sequences, and the form enclosed in square brackets. Keep in mind, though, that often the term "character class" is used to mean just the bracketed form. Certainly, most Perl documentation does that.
The dot
The dot (or period),
. is probably the most used, and certainly the most well-known character class. By default, a dot matches any character, except for the newline. The default can be changed to add matching the newline by using the single line modifier: either for the entire regular expression with the
/s modifier, or locally with
(?s). (The experimental
\N backslash sequence, described below, matches any character except newline without regard to the single line modifier.)
Here are some examples:
"a" =~ /./ # Match
"." =~ /./ # Match
"" =~ /./ # No match (dot has to match a character)
"\n" =~ /./ # No match (dot does not match a newline)
"\n" =~ /./s # Match (global 'single line' modifier)
"\n" =~ /(?s:.)/ # Match (local 'single line' modifier)
"ab" =~ /^.$/ # No match (dot matches one character)
Backslash sequences
A backslash sequence is a sequence of characters, the first one of which is a backslash. Perl ascribes special meaning to many such sequences, and some of these are character classes. That is, they match a single character each, provided that the character belongs to the specific set of characters defined by the sequence.
Here's a list of the backslash sequences that are character classes. They are discussed in more detail below. (For the backslash sequences that aren't character classes, see perlrebackslash.)
\d Match a decimal digit character.
\D Match a non-decimal-digit character.
\w Match a "word" character.
\W Match a non-"word" character.
\s Match a whitespace character.
\S Match a non-whitespace character.
\h Match a horizontal whitespace character.
\H Match a character that isn't horizontal whitespace.
\v Match a vertical whitespace character.
\V Match a character that isn't vertical whitespace.
\N Match a character that isn't a newline. Experimental.
\pP, \p{Prop} Match a character that has the given Unicode property.
\PP, \P{Prop} Match a character that doesn't have the Unicode property
\d matches a single character that is considered to be a decimal digit. What is considered a decimal digit depends on several factors, detailed below in "Locale, EBCDIC, Unicode and UTF-8". If those factors indicate a Unicode interpretation,
\d not only matches the digits '0' - '9', but also Arabic, Devanagari and digits from other languages. Otherwise, if there is a locale in effect, it will match whatever characters the locale considers decimal digits. Without a locale,
\d matches just the digits '0' to '9'.
Unicode digits may cause some confusion, and some security issues. In UTF-8 strings,
\d matches the same characters matched by
\p{General_Category=Decimal_Number}, or synonymously,
\p{General_Category=Digit}. Starting with Unicode version 4.1, this is the same set of characters matched by
But Unicode also has a different property with a similar name,
\p{Numeric_Type=Digit}, which matches a completely different set of characters. These characters are things such as subscripts.
The design intent is for
\d to match all the digits (and no other characters) that can be used with "normal" big-endian positional decimal syntax, whereby a sequence of such digits {N0, N1, N2, ...Nn} has the numeric value (...(N0 * 10 + N1) * 10 + N2) * 10 ... + Nn). In Unicode 5.2, the Tamil digits (U+0BE6 - U+0BEF) can also legally be used in old-style Tamil numbers in which they would appear no more than one in a row, separated by characters that mean "times 10", "times 100", etc. (See http://www.unicode.org/notes/tn21.)
Some of the non-European digits that
\d matches look like European ones, but have different values. For example, BENGALI DIGIT FOUR (U+09EA) looks very much like an ASCII DIGIT EIGHT (U+0038).
It may be useful for security purposes for an application to require that all digits in a row be from the same script. See "charscript()" in Unicode::UCD.
Any character that isn't matched by
\d will be matched by
Word characters
\w matches a single alphanumeric character (an alphabetic character, or a decimal digit) or a connecting punctuation character, such as an underscore ("_"). It does not match a whole word. To match a whole word, use
\w+. This isn't the same thing as matching an English word, but in the ASCII range is the same as a string of Perl-identifier characters. What is considered a word character depends on several factors, detailed below in "Locale, EBCDIC, Unicode and UTF-8". If those factors indicate a Unicode interpretation,
\w matches the characters that are considered word characters in the Unicode database. That is, it not only matches ASCII letters, but also Thai letters, Greek letters, etc. This includes connector punctuation (like the underscore) which connect two words together, or marks, such as a
COMBINING TILDE, which are generally used to add diacritical marks to letters. If a Unicode interpretation is not indicated,
\w matches those characters that are considered word characters by the current locale or EBCDIC code page. Without a locale or EBCDIC code page,
\w matches the ASCII letters, digits and the underscore.
There are a number of security issues with the full Unicode list of word characters. See http://unicode.org/reports/tr36.
Also, for a somewhat finer-grained set of characters that are in programming language identifiers beyond the ASCII range, you may wish to instead use the more customized Unicode properties, "ID_Start", ID_Continue", "XID_Start", and "XID_Continue". See http://unicode.org/reports/tr31.
Any character that isn't matched by
\w will be matched by
\s matches any single character that is considered whitespace. The exact set of characters matched by
\s depends on several factors, detailed below in "Locale, EBCDIC, Unicode and UTF-8". If those factors indicate a Unicode interpretation,
\s matches what is considered whitespace in the Unicode database; the complete list is in the table below. Otherwise, if there is a locale or EBCDIC code page in effect,
\s matches whatever is considered whitespace by the current locale or EBCDIC code page. Without a locale or EBCDIC code page,
\s matches the horizontal tab (
\t), the newline (
\n), the form feed (
\f), the carriage return (
\r), and the space. (Note that it doesn't match the vertical tab,
\cK.) Perhaps the most notable possible surprise is that
\s matches a non-breaking space only if a Unicode interpretation is indicated, or the locale or EBCDIC code page that is in effect has that character.
Any character that isn't matched by
\s will be matched by
\h will match any character that is considered horizontal whitespace; this includes the space and the tab characters and a number other characters, all of which are listed in the table below.
\H will match any character that is not considered horizontal whitespace.
\v will match any character that is considered vertical whitespace; this includes the carriage return and line feed characters (newline) plus several other characters, all listed in the table below.
\V will match any character that is not considered vertical whitespace.
\R matches anything that can be considered a newline under Unicode rules. It's not a character class, as it can match a multi-character sequence. Therefore, it cannot be used inside a bracketed character class; use
\v instead (vertical whitespace). Details are discussed in perlrebackslash.
Note that unlike
\d and
\h and
\v always match the same characters, without regard to other factors, such as if the source string is in UTF-8 format or not.
One might think that
\s is equivalent to
[\h\v]. This is not true. The vertical tab (
"\x0b") is not matched by
\s, it is however considered vertical whitespace. Furthermore, if the source string is not in UTF-8 format, and any locale or EBCDIC code page that is in effect doesn't include them, the next line (ASCII-platform
"\x85") and the no-break space (ASCII-platform
"\xA0") characters are not matched by
\s, but are by
\v and
\h respectively. If the source string is in UTF-8 format, both the next line and the no-break space are matched by
The following table is a complete listing of characters matched by
\h and
\v as of Unicode 5.2.
The first column gives the code point of the character (in hex format), the second column gives the (Unicode) name. The third column indicates by which class(es) the character is matched (assuming no locale or EBCDIC code page is in effect that changes the
\s matching).
0x00009 CHARACTER TABULATION h s
0x0000a LINE FEED (LF) vs
0x0000b LINE TABULATION v
0x0000c FORM FEED (FF) vs
0x0000d CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) vs
0x00020 SPACE h s
0x00085 NEXT LINE (NEL) vs [1]
0x000a0 NO-BREAK SPACE h s [1]
0x01680 OGHAM SPACE MARK h s
0x0180e MONGOLIAN VOWEL SEPARATOR h s
0x02000 EN QUAD h s
0x02001 EM QUAD h s
0x02002 EN SPACE h s
0x02003 EM SPACE h s
0x02004 THREE-PER-EM SPACE h s
0x02005 FOUR-PER-EM SPACE h s
0x02006 SIX-PER-EM SPACE h s
0x02007 FIGURE SPACE h s
0x02008 PUNCTUATION SPACE h s
0x02009 THIN SPACE h s
0x0200a HAIR SPACE h s
0x02028 LINE SEPARATOR vs
0x02029 PARAGRAPH SEPARATOR vs
0x0202f NARROW NO-BREAK SPACE h s
0x0205f MEDIUM MATHEMATICAL SPACE h s
0x03000 IDEOGRAPHIC SPACE h s
- [1]
NEXT LINE and NO-BREAK SPACE only match
\sif the source string is in UTF-8 format, or the locale or EBCDIC code page that is in effect includes them.
It is worth noting that
\w, etc, match single characters, not complete numbers or words. To match a number (that consists of digits), use
\d+; to match a word, use
\N is new in 5.12, and is experimental. It, like the dot, will match any character that is not a newline. The difference is that
\N is not influenced by the single line regular expression modifier (see "The dot" above). Note that the form
\N{...} may mean something completely different. When the
{...} is a quantifier, it means to match a non-newline character that many times. For example,
\N{3} means to match 3 non-newlines;
\N{5,} means to match 5 or more non-newlines. But if
{...} is not a legal quantifier, it is presumed to be a named character. See charnames for those. For example, none of
\N{4F}, and
\N{F4} contain legal quantifiers, so Perl will try to find characters whose names are, respectively,
4F, and
Unicode Properties
\pP and
\p{Prop} are character classes to match characters that fit given Unicode properties. One letter property names can be used in the
\pP form, with the property name following the
\p, otherwise, braces are required. When using braces, there is a single form, which is just the property name enclosed in the braces, and a compound form which looks like
\p{name=value}, which means to match if the property "name" for the character has the particular "value". For instance, a match for a number can be written as
/\pN/ or as
/\p{Number}/, or as
/\p{Number=True}/. Lowercase letters are matched by the property Lowercase_Letter which has as short form Ll. They need the braces, so are written as
/\p{Ll}/ or
/\p{Lowercase_Letter}/, or
/\p{General_Category=Lowercase_Letter}/ (the underscores are optional).
/\pLl/ is valid, but means something different. It matches a two character string: a letter (Unicode property
\pL), followed by a lowercase
For more details, see "Unicode Character Properties" in perlunicode; for a complete list of possible properties, see "Properties accessible through \p{} and \P{}" in perluniprops. It is also possible to define your own properties. This is discussed in "User-Defined Character Properties" in perlunicode.
"a" =~ /\w/ # Match, "a" is a 'word' character.
"7" =~ /\w/ # Match, "7" is a 'word' character as well.
"a" =~ /\d/ # No match, "a" isn't a digit.
"7" =~ /\d/ # Match, "7" is a digit.
" " =~ /\s/ # Match, a space is whitespace.
"a" =~ /\D/ # Match, "a" is a non-digit.
"7" =~ /\D/ # No match, "7" is not a non-digit.
" " =~ /\S/ # No match, a space is not non-whitespace.
" " =~ /\h/ # Match, space is horizontal whitespace.
" " =~ /\v/ # No match, space is not vertical whitespace.
"\r" =~ /\v/ # Match, a return is vertical whitespace.
"a" =~ /\pL/ # Match, "a" is a letter.
"a" =~ /\p{Lu}/ # No match, /\p{Lu}/ matches upper case letters.
"\x{0e0b}" =~ /\p{Thai}/ # Match, \x{0e0b} is the character
# 'THAI CHARACTER SO SO', and that's in
# Thai Unicode class.
"a" =~ /\P{Lao}/ # Match, as "a" is not a Laotian character.
Bracketed Character Classes
The third form of character class you can use in Perl regular expressions is the bracketed character class. In its simplest form, it lists the characters that may be matched, surrounded by square brackets, like this:
[aeiou]. This matches one of
o or
u. Like the other character classes, exactly one character will be matched. To match a longer string consisting of characters mentioned in the character class, follow the character class with a quantifier. For instance,
[aeiou]+ matches a string of one or more lowercase English vowels.
Repeating a character in a character class has no effect; it's considered to be in the set only once.
"e" =~ /[aeiou]/ # Match, as "e" is listed in the class.
"p" =~ /[aeiou]/ # No match, "p" is not listed in the class.
"ae" =~ /^[aeiou]$/ # No match, a character class only matches
# a single character.
"ae" =~ /^[aeiou]+$/ # Match, due to the quantifier.
Special Characters Inside a Bracketed Character Class
Most characters that are meta characters in regular expressions (that is, characters that carry a special meaning like
*, or
() lose their special meaning and can be used inside a character class without the need to escape them. For instance,
[()] matches either an opening parenthesis, or a closing parenthesis, and the parens inside the character class don't group or capture.
Characters that may carry a special meaning inside a character class are:
[ and
], and are discussed below. They can be escaped with a backslash, although this is sometimes not needed, in which case the backslash may be omitted.
The sequence
\b is special inside a bracketed character class. While outside the character class,
\b is an assertion indicating a point that does not have either two word characters or two non-word characters on either side, inside a bracketed character class,
\b matches a backspace character.
The sequences
\N{U+wide hex char},
\t, and
\x are also special and have the same meanings as they do outside a bracketed character class. (However, inside a bracketed character class, if
\N{NAME} expands to a sequence of characters, only the first one in the sequence is used, with a warning.)
Also, a backslash followed by two or three octal digits is considered an octal number.
[ is not special inside a character class, unless it's the start of a POSIX character class (see "POSIX Character Classes" below). It normally does not need escaping.
] is normally either the end of a POSIX character class (see "POSIX Character Classes" below), or it signals the end of the bracketed character class. If you want to include a
] in the set of characters, you must generally escape it. However, if the
] is the first (or the second if the first character is a caret) character of a bracketed character class, it does not denote the end of the class (as you cannot have an empty class) and is considered part of the set of characters that can be matched without escaping.
"+" =~ /[+?*]/ # Match, "+" in a character class is not special.
"\cH" =~ /[\b]/ # Match, \b inside in a character class
# is equivalent to a backspace.
"]" =~ /[][]/ # Match, as the character class contains.
# both [ and ].
"[]" =~ /[[]]/ # Match, the pattern contains a character class
# containing just ], and the character class is
# followed by a ].
Character Ranges
It is not uncommon to want to match a range of characters. Luckily, instead of listing all the characters in the range, one may use the hyphen (
-). If inside a bracketed character class you have two characters separated by a hyphen, it's treated as if all the characters between the two are in the class. For instance,
[0-9] matches any ASCII digit, and
[a-m] matches any lowercase letter from the first half of the ASCII alphabet.
Note that the two characters on either side of the hyphen are not necessary both letters or both digits. Any character is possible, although not advisable.
['-?] contains a range of characters, but most people will not know which characters that will be. Furthermore, such ranges may lead to portability problems if the code has to run on a platform that uses a different character set, such as EBCDIC.
If a hyphen in a character class cannot syntactically be part of a range, for instance because it is the first or the last character of the character class, or if it immediately follows a range, the hyphen isn't special, and will be considered a character that is to be matched literally. You have to escape the hyphen with a backslash if you want to have a hyphen in your set of characters to be matched, and its position in the class is such that it could be considered part of a range.
[a-z] # Matches a character that is a lower case ASCII letter.
[a-fz] # Matches any letter between 'a' and 'f' (inclusive) or
# the letter 'z'.
[-z] # Matches either a hyphen ('-') or the letter 'z'.
[a-f-m] # Matches any letter between 'a' and 'f' (inclusive), the
# hyphen ('-'), or the letter 'm'.
['-?] # Matches any of the characters '()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?
# (But not on an EBCDIC platform).
It is also possible to instead list the characters you do not want to match. You can do so by using a caret (
^) as the first character in the character class. For instance,
[^a-z] matches a character that is not a lowercase ASCII letter.
This syntax make the caret a special character inside a bracketed character class, but only if it is the first character of the class. So if you want to have the caret as one of the characters you want to match, you either have to escape the caret, or not list it first.
"e" =~ /[^aeiou]/ # No match, the 'e' is listed.
"x" =~ /[^aeiou]/ # Match, as 'x' isn't a lowercase vowel.
"^" =~ /[^^]/ # No match, matches anything that isn't a caret.
"^" =~ /[x^]/ # Match, caret is not special here.
Backslash Sequences
You can put any backslash sequence character class (with the exception of
\N) inside a bracketed character class, and it will act just as if you put all the characters matched by the backslash sequence inside the character class. For instance,
[a-f\d] will match any decimal digit, or any of the lowercase letters between 'a' and 'f' inclusive.
\N within a bracketed character class must be of the forms
\N{name} or
\N{U+wide hex char}, and NOT be the form that matches non-newlines, for the same reason that a dot
. inside a bracketed character class loses its special meaning: it matches nearly anything, which generally isn't what you want to happen.
/[\p{Thai}\d]/ # Matches a character that is either a Thai
# character, or a digit.
/[^\p{Arabic}()]/ # Matches a character that is neither an Arabic
# character, nor a parenthesis.
Backslash sequence character classes cannot form one of the endpoints of a range. Thus, you can't say:
/[\p{Thai}-\d]/ # Wrong!
POSIX Character Classes
POSIX character classes have the form
[:class:], where class is name, and the
[: and
:] delimiters. POSIX character classes only appear inside bracketed character classes, and are a convenient and descriptive way of listing a group of characters, though they currently suffer from portability issues (see below and "Locale, EBCDIC, Unicode and UTF-8").
Be careful about the syntax,
# Correct:
$string =~ /[[:alpha:]]/
# Incorrect (will warn):
$string =~ /[:alpha:]/
The latter pattern would be a character class consisting of a colon, and the letters
p and
h. POSIX character classes can be part of a larger bracketed character class. For example,
is valid and matches '0', '1', any alphabetic character, and the percent sign.
Perl recognizes the following POSIX character classes:
alpha Any alphabetical character ("[A-Za-z]").
alnum Any alphanumerical character. ("[A-Za-z0-9]")
ascii Any character in the ASCII character set.
blank A GNU extension, equal to a space or a horizontal tab ("\t").
cntrl Any control character. See Note [2] below.
digit Any decimal digit ("[0-9]"), equivalent to "\d".
graph Any printable character, excluding a space. See Note [3] below.
lower Any lowercase character ("[a-z]").
print Any printable character, including a space. See Note [4] below.
punct Any graphical character excluding "word" characters. Note [5].
space Any whitespace character. "\s" plus the vertical tab ("\cK").
upper Any uppercase character ("[A-Z]").
word A Perl extension ("[A-Za-z0-9_]"), equivalent to "\w".
xdigit Any hexadecimal digit ("[0-9a-fA-F]").
Most POSIX character classes have two Unicode-style
\p property counterparts. (They are not official Unicode properties, but Perl extensions derived from official Unicode properties.) The table below shows the relation between POSIX character classes and these counterparts.
One counterpart, in the column labelled "ASCII-range Unicode" in the table, will only match characters in the ASCII character set.
The other counterpart, in the column labelled "Full-range Unicode", matches any appropriate characters in the full Unicode character set. For example,
\p{Alpha} will match not just the ASCII alphabetic characters, but any character in the entire Unicode character set that is considered to be alphabetic. The backslash sequence column is a (short) synonym for the Full-range Unicode form.
(Each of the counterparts has various synonyms as well. "Properties accessible through \p{} and \P{}" in perluniprops lists all the synonyms, plus all the characters matched by each of the ASCII-range properties. For example
\p{AHex} is a synonym for
\p{ASCII_Hex_Digit}, and any
\p property name can be prefixed with "Is" such as
Both the
\p forms are unaffected by any locale that is in effect, or whether the string is in UTF-8 format or not, or whether the platform is EBCDIC or not. In contrast, the POSIX character classes are affected. If the source string is in UTF-8 format, the POSIX classes behave like their "Full-range" Unicode counterparts. If the source string is not in UTF-8 format, and no locale is in effect, and the platform is not EBCDIC, all the POSIX classes behave like their ASCII-range counterparts. Otherwise, they behave based on the rules of the locale or EBCDIC code page.
It is proposed to change this behavior in a future release of Perl so that the the UTF8ness of the source string will be irrelevant to the behavior of the POSIX character classes. This means they will always behave in strict accordance with the official POSIX standard. That is, if either locale or EBCDIC code page is present, they will behave in accordance with those; if absent, the classes will match only their ASCII-range counterparts. If you disagree with this proposal, send email to
[[:...:]] ASCII-range Full-range backslash Note
Unicode Unicode sequence
alpha \p{PosixAlpha} \p{XPosixAlpha}
alnum \p{PosixAlnum} \p{XPosixAlnum}
ascii \p{ASCII}
blank \p{PosixBlank} \p{XPosixBlank} \h [1]
or \p{HorizSpace} [1]
cntrl \p{PosixCntrl} \p{XPosixCntrl} [2]
digit \p{PosixDigit} \p{XPosixDigit} \d
graph \p{PosixGraph} \p{XPosixGraph} [3]
lower \p{PosixLower} \p{XPosixLower}
print \p{PosixPrint} \p{XPosixPrint} [4]
punct \p{PosixPunct} \p{XPosixPunct} [5]
\p{PerlSpace} \p{XPerlSpace} \s [6]
space \p{PosixSpace} \p{XPosixSpace} [6]
upper \p{PosixUpper} \p{XPosixUpper}
word \p{PosixWord} \p{XPosixWord} \w
xdigit \p{ASCII_Hex_Digit} \p{XPosixXDigit}
- [1]
\p{HorizSpace}are synonyms.
- [2]
Control characters don't produce output as such, but instead usually control the terminal somehow: for example newline and backspace are control characters. In the ASCII range, characters whose ordinals are between 0 and 31 inclusive, plus 127 (
DEL) are control characters.
On EBCDIC platforms, it is likely that the code page will define
[[:cntrl:]]to be the EBCDIC equivalents of the ASCII controls, plus the controls that in Unicode have ordinals from 128 through 159.
- [3]
Any character that is graphical, that is, visible. This class consists of all the alphanumerical characters and all punctuation characters.
- [4]
All printable characters, which is the set of all the graphical characters plus whitespace characters that are not also controls.
- [5]
[[:punct:]]in the ASCII range match all the non-controls, non-alphanumeric, non-space characters:
[-!"#$%&'()*+,./:;<=>?@[\\\]^_`{|}~](although if a locale is in effect, it could alter the behavior of
The similarly named property,
\p{Punct}, matches a somewhat different set in the ASCII range, namely
[-!"#%&'()*,./:;?@[\\\]_{}]. That is, it is missing
[$+<=>^`|~]. This is because Unicode splits what POSIX considers to be punctuation into two categories, Punctuation and Symbols.
\p{PosixPunct, and when the matching string is in UTF-8 format,
[[:punct:]], match what they match in the ASCII range, plus what
\p{Punct}matches. This is different than strictly matching according to
\p{Punct}. Another way to say it is that for a UTF-8 string,
[[:punct:]]matches all the characters that Unicode considers to be punctuation, plus all the ASCII-range characters that Unicode considers to be symbols.
- [6]
\p{Space}differ only in that
\p{Space}additionally matches the vertical tab,
\cK. Same for the two ASCII-only range forms.
There are various other synonyms that can be used for these besides
\p{HorizSpace} and \
\p{XPosixBlank}. For example
\p{PosixAlpha} can be written as
\p{Alpha}. All are listed in "Properties accessible through \p{} and \P{}" in perluniprops.
A Perl extension to the POSIX character class is the ability to negate it. This is done by prefixing the class name with a caret (
^). Some examples:
POSIX ASCII-range Full-range backslash
Unicode Unicode sequence
[[:^digit:]] \P{PosixDigit} \P{XPosixDigit} \D
[[:^space:]] \P{PosixSpace} \P{XPosixSpace}
\P{PerlSpace} \P{XPerlSpace} \S
[[:^word:]] \P{PerlWord} \P{XPosixWord} \W
Again, the backslash sequence means Full-range Unicode.
[= =] and [. .]
Perl will recognize the POSIX character classes
[=class=], and
[.class.], but does not (yet?) support them. Use of such a construct will lead to an error.
/[[:digit:]]/ # Matches a character that is a digit.
/[01[:lower:]]/ # Matches a character that is either a
# lowercase letter, or '0' or '1'.
/[[:digit:][:^xdigit:]]/ # Matches a character that can be anything
# except the letters 'a' to 'f'. This is
# because the main character class is composed
# of two POSIX character classes that are ORed
# together, one that matches any digit, and
# the other that matches anything that isn't a
# hex digit. The result matches all
# characters except the letters 'a' to 'f' and
# 'A' to 'F'.
Locale, EBCDIC, Unicode and UTF-8
Some of the character classes have a somewhat different behaviour depending on the internal encoding of the source string, if the regular expression is marked as having Unicode semantics, the locale that is in effect, and if the program is running on an EBCDIC platform.
\s and the POSIX character classes (and their negations, including
\S) have this behaviour. (Since the backslash sequences
\b and
\B are defined in terms of
\w and
\W, they also are affected.)
The rule is that if the source string is in UTF-8 format or the regular expression is marked as indicating Unicode semantics (see the next paragraph), the character classes match according to the Unicode properties. Otherwise, the character classes match according to whatever locale or EBCDIC code page is in effect. If there is no locale nor EBCDIC, they match the ASCII defaults (0 to 9 for
\d; 52 letters, 10 digits and underscore for
\w; etc.).
A regular expression is marked for Unicode semantics if it is encoded in utf8 (usually as a result of including a literal character whose code point is above 255), or if it contains a
\N{U+...} or
\N{name} construct, or (starting in Perl 5.14) if it was compiled in the scope of a
use feature "unicode_strings" pragma, or has the
"u" regular expression modifier.
The differences in behavior between locale and non-locale semantics can affect any character whose code point is 255 or less. The differences in behavior between Unicode and non-Unicode semantics affects only ASCII platforms, and only when matching against characters whose code points are between 128 and 255 inclusive. See "The "Unicode Bug"" in perlunicode.
For portability reasons, it may be better to not use
\s or the POSIX character classes, and use the Unicode properties instead. That way you can control whether you want matching of just characters in the ASCII character set, or any Unicode characters.
use feature "unicode_strings" will allow seamless Unicode behavior no matter what the internal encodings are, but won't allow restricting to just the ASCII characters.
$str = "\xDF"; # $str is not in UTF-8 format.
$str =~ /^\w/; # No match, as $str isn't in UTF-8 format.
$str .= "\x{0e0b}"; # Now $str is in UTF-8 format.
$str =~ /^\w/; # Match! $str is now in UTF-8 format.
chop $str;
$str =~ /^\w/; # Still a match! $str remains in UTF-8 format.