As far as I can see, there is no way to embed a plain string into a regex, without escaping the string. Same with characters. Isn't that a bad omission for a library that becomes the new C++ standard? Escaping something just to unescape it on the other end of the function call seems unnecessary, and it opens up the possibility of ills like regex code injection if someone forgets to escape or does it wrong. I know about Boost.Xpressive, but that won't be the new standard. This is not a lobbying effort for Boost.Xpressive. I have never used it precisely because I wanted to stick to the standard. Now I am a bit worried about pouring something into C++ standard concrete that has a pretty obvious omission in it. Arno -- Dr. Arno Schödl | aschoedl@think-cell.com Technical Director think-cell Software GmbH | Chausseestr. 8/E | 10115 Berlin | Germany http://www.think-cell.com | phone +49 30 666473-10 | US phone +1 800 891 8091 Amtsgericht Berlin-Charlottenburg, HRB 85229 | European Union VAT Id DE813474306 Directors: Dr. Markus Hannebauer, Dr. Arno Schoedl