RE: the match() function

> Im not sure what you mean by 'regular expression'. 

If you don't understand what a regular expression is then you shouldn't be
using the matches() function at all: I suspect this is the source of your
confusion (and ours). I suspect that you are just trying to compare two
strings to see if they are equal ignoring case. Yes?

The correct solution for that is to use the compare() function, specifying a
case-blind collation. Unfortunately collation names are processor dependent,
so you may prefer the simpler (but less accurate) approach of testing
lower-case($A) = lower-case($B).

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/