If-Then-Else Conditionals in Regular Expressions and using capturing group - c++

Question

I have some difficulties in understanding if-then-else conditionals in regular expressions.
After reading If-Then-Else Conditionals in Regular Expressions I decided to write a simple test. I use C++, Boost 1.38 Regex and MS VC 8.0.
I have written this program:
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <boost/regex.hpp>
int main()
{
std::string str_to_modify = "123";
//std::string str_to_modify = "ttt";
boost::regex regex_to_search ("(\\d\\d\\d)");
std::string regex_format ("(?($1)$1|000)");
std::string modified_str =
boost::regex_replace(
str_to_modify,
regex_to_search,
regex_format,
boost::match_default | boost::format_all | format_no_copy );
std::cout << modified_str << std::endl;
return 0;
}
I expected to get "123" if str_to_modify has "123" and to get "000" if I str_to_modify has "ttt". However I get ?123123|000 in the first case and nothing in second one.
Coluld you tell me, please, what is wrong with my test?
The second example that still doesn't work :
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <boost/regex.hpp>
int main()
{
//std::string str_to_modify = "123";
std::string str_to_modify = "ttt";
boost::regex regex_to_search ("(\\d\\d\\d)");
std::string regex_format ("(?1foo:bar");
std::string modified_str =
boost::regex_replace(str_to_modify, regex_to_search, regex_format,
boost::match_default | boost::format_all | boost::format_no_copy );
std::cout << modified_str << std::endl;
return 0;
}

Answer 1

I think the format string should be (?1$1:000) as described in the Boost.Regex docs.
Edit: I don't think regex_replace can do what you want. Why don't you try the following instead? regex_match will tell you whether the match succeeded (or you can use match[i].matched to check whether the i-th tagged sub-expression matched). You can format the match using the match.format member function.
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <boost/regex.hpp>
int main()
{
boost::regex regex_to_search ("(\\d\\d\\d)");
std::string str_to_modify;
while (std::getline(std::cin, str_to_modify))
{
boost::smatch match;
if (boost::regex_match(str_to_modify, match, regex_to_search))
std::cout << match.format("foo:$1") << std::endl;
else
std::cout << "error" << std::endl;
}
}