Pattern Window

The pattern window is used throughout the Hex Editor Neo to specify patterns to fill, insert, find, replace and so on.

Pattern Window

The Type selector with Size selector let you specify the type of pattern you are going to enter:

Size/Type	BYTE	WORD	DWORD	QWORD
String (Current Encoding)	A pattern is specified as a single-byte text string. Current window's encoding is used by default and may be changed using the Options menu.	N/A	N/A	N/A
UNICODE String	N/A	A pattern is specified as a UTF16-encoded string.	N/A	N/A
Hex	8-bit hexadecimal values	16-bit hexadecimal values	32-bit hexadecimal values	64-bit hexadecimal values
Decimal	8-bit decimal values	16-bit decimal values	32-bit decimal values	64-bit decimal values
Octal	8-bit octal values	16-bit octal values	32-bit octal values	64-bit octal values
Binary	8-bit binary values	16-bit binary values	32-bit binary values	64-bit binary values
Float	N/A	N/A	A pattern consists of single-precision floating-point values (encoded according to IEEE 754 standard).	N/A
Double	N/A	N/A	N/A	A pattern consists of double-precision floating-point values (encoded according to IEEE 754 standard).

All pattern types except for String and UNICODE strings are entered using standard editor window, which is part of the pattern window. Keyboard navigation, selection and data modification operate exactly the same. A shorter version of shortcut menu is also provided for the window.

When in String or UNICODE String mode, you can select one of the previous strings by pressing the down-arrow combo-box button. For other types, Recent Patterns… under Options is used to access recent patterns or clear the current pattern.

Press the Options button to access additional options:

Encoding to change current encoding (applicable only to String type)
Byte Order to change current byte order (applicable to UNICODE String type and other types where Size is equal or greater than the size of WORD, that is, 16 bit or more)
Recent Patterns to access previous patterns used for the current function.

Every window that contains a pattern window is resizable. You can change its size and it will be restored next time you open the same window. Each window also stores its own list of recent patterns and strings.

Wildcard Pattern

In some cases (if supported by the operation) you can insert “gaps” or wildcard values by pressing X key when the editor is not in a string mode. This will result in a so-called wildcard pattern which will perform a wildcard match when used in various operations, such as find or replace.

Byte Order

Byte order in the pattern dialog automatically matches the one in the current editor window. Commands in the shortcut menu let you change the byte order. Byte order may also be changed after pressing the Options button.

Match mode

Several Hex Editor Neo's commands support searching for special types of text patterns: wildcard patterns and regular expression patterns. Use this control to set the text pattern type:

Normal. Simple text matching.
Wildcards (greedy). Wildcard pattern matching.
Wildcards (non-greedy). Wildcard pattern matching.
Regular Expression. Regular expression pattern matching. Additionally, sub-expression (zero or higher) may be specified.

Difference between greedy and non-greedy wildcard matching is the following. Consider searching for pattern a*e within text abbeeec:

Greedy: abbeeec
Non-greedy: abbeeec

Scripting

Several scripting methods accepts patterns. See the Pattern.Data, Pattern.Search and Pattern.Replace interfaces as well as convertByteArray helper method for more information.