[BuckeyeTexan]

Any of you guys ever have Regex insert new words that weren’t in the text originally?

Sure, when I intentionally insert such text.

Now I have had weird stuff like that happen when I am reading from one file to update a second file. The regex processing engine is pretty complex. When you're reading from one file and writing to another, it's a bit like playing twister.

[Lazamataz]

GREAT chatting with you; Thursday is pretty good for me as far as getting married. Surprised you proposed so quickly, though!

[butterdezillion]

The SCOTUS text shouldn’t need any “updating” though. It hasn’t been changed since the decision was first issued so why would there be any “updating”?

If they were changing their format - to allow for clickable links, for instance, or if (as someone here as suggested) the references were in a different format for older cases than for newer ones and the programmers wanted to make the format uniform throughout - that might be “updating”, but why would that include language pretending that it’s part of the original text of the court’s reasoning?

I’m about as far from a techno-nerd as a person can get so details are lost on me in this regard, but I do hope Laz will look at the specifics and tell us if the Regex explanation is plausible.

The timing of the changes and their correction is a whole ‘nother subject as well.

[Danae]

Yep, putting something in is not much harder than taking something out in a manner of speaking, they are each one side of the same coin. It takes deliberate action to accomplish.

[Lazamataz]

Ok, in my professional opinion, the Doctor is correct. The likelihood of Regex removing such particular elements is, in this case, very small, and Regex CANNOT insert or replace new text without specific instructions to do so -- something a reference site would not do.

In terms of missing text, when presenting a whole page of information by finding it by Regex, the Regex would simply invariably return NOTHING (the pattern didn't match), not a corrupted page. Nor would one usually want to use Regex to return the opinion at all. One would locate the page with a search and a use of Regex, then simply present the raw text from the DB using an ordinary SQL or Linq2SQL conduit. There would be no need for Regex to return the actual record, and it would actually be cumbersome and VERY PRONE TO UNIVERSAL ERRORS to accomplish it that way. Regex finds, SQL returns, would be the sensible model, and the only model I would recommend.

VANISHINGLY Small chance of the missing-text-explanation, ZERO chance of the inserting-text-explanation.

Unless I am given the regex code outright, which I can analyze, and see if it is some sort of DB conduit -- which I doubt -- I am forced to call this a confirmed LIE.

To tutstar: Not really. If it goes at all renegade, it would usually be to return no results at all.