named character classes in grep

[minal silimkar]

I want to know how to use named charactes classes with grep command?

[Tim Holloway]

Character-class pattern for USA format date string (MM/DD/YYYY):

[:digit:][:digit:]/[:digit][:digit:]/[:digit:]{4}

Which is equivalent to

\d\d/\d\d/\d{4}

Or \d{2}/\d{2}\/d{4}

Except that character classes may be more locale-sensitive, if I understood them correctly.

Another benefit of the named classes is that backslashes can bite.
[ April 18, 2008: Message edited by: Tim Holloway ]

[minal silimkar]

How can I use the named character constants with grep command?