[erlang-questions] Why is it necessary to "double-escape" [ characters in regular expressions?

[Sverker Eriksson]

David Mitchell wrote:
> However, I didn't expect that "double escaping" it would be the solution to
> my problem.
>
>   
 From http://erlang.org/doc/man/re.html:

Note

The Erlang literal syntax for strings give special meaning to the "\" 
(backslash) character. To literally write a regular expression or a
replacement string containing a backslash in your code or in the shell, 
two backslashes have to be written: "\\".


/Sverker, Erlang/OTP Ericsson