Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!fernwood!uupsi!cmcl2!adm!news
From: RSS%CALSTATE.bitnet@vm.usc.edu (Richard S. Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: How do I find a word?
Message-ID: <26716@adm.brl.mil>
Date: 30 Apr 91 21:41:24 GMT
Sender: news@adm.brl.mil
Lines: 16

I get the feeling there's no good answer to this question, but I
am asking it anyway...

Is there a SIMPLE, NON-PAINFUL way to set up a regular expression so
that it will match a given string only when it occurs as a word, i.e.,
delimited by non-alphanumeric characters or by line boundaries?

In other words, I am looking for a simple, generalized way to find
"foo" when it occurs as "foo bar" or "foo-bar" or "foo: bar" but NOT
as "foobar".  I am hoping there is a simpler answer than:

"[^A-Za-z0-9]foo[^A-Za-z0-9]"

Thanks to anyone who can help.

Richard Smith - RSS@CALSTATE.BITNET