Bug in NSPredicate?

[Mathias Bauer]

Hi dear list members,

IMHO the following code in NSPredicate.m is wrong:

(line 944 ff.)

>           NSString *regex;
>
>           /* The right hand is a pattern with '?' meaning match one character,
>            * and '*' meaning match zero or more characters, so translate that
>            * into a regex.
>            */
>           regex = [rightResult stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString: @"*"
>                                                          withString: @".*"];  
> // wrong!
>           regex = [regex stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString: @"?"
>                                                    withString: @".?"];          
>       // wrong!
>           regex = [NSString stringWithFormat: @"^%@$", regex];
>           return GSICUStringMatchesRegex(leftResult, regex, compareOptions);

In case the caller wants to use a "*" as a literal (and not as a "joker" 
matching any character), the relavant part of the string rightResult 
would be

"\*"

This code converts it into

"\.*"

and this will not yield the expected results.

On MacOS the following "Like" predicate matches:

leftResult = "**/*" and rightResult = "\*\*\/\*"

On GNUstep it matches only if the replacements shown above are removed.

So the stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString calls must replace only 
those "*" or "?" in the string that are not escaped. Any objections?

Regards,
Mathias