function [ranum,rachar]=__getrange(r)

% find the separator
middle = strfind (r,':');
s='"'; % fuck this shit
%% just support single charakter. e.g. from A:C or D:X. AA:DZ is not supported yet!!! until someone build regexp for it!
eval (sprintf ("rachar = [%s%s%s:%s%s%s];", s, r(1), s, s, r(middle+1), s));
_min.raw=r(2:middle-1);
_min.len=length(_min.raw);
_max.raw=r(middle+2:end);
_max.len=length(_max.raw);

if _max.len>_min.len

elseif _max.len==_min.len
  for i=1:_max.len
    if (str2double(_max.raw(i)) == str2double(_min.raw(i)))
      eval (sprintf ("regexpart{%d} = '%s';",i,_min.raw(i)));
    elseif (str2double(_max.raw(i)) - str2double(_min.raw(i)))> 1
      eval (sprintf ("regexpart{%d} = '[%s-%d]';",i,_min.raw(i),str2double(_max.raw(i))-1));
    else % max - min = 1
      eval (sprintf ("regexpart{%d} = '[%s-%s]';",i,_min.raw(i),_max.raw(i)));
    endif
  endfor
endif

if _max.num-_min.num <= 9
        if length
                eval (sprintf ("rachar = [%s%s%s:%s%s%s];", s, r(1), s, s, r(middle+1), s));
                eval (sprintf ("ranum  = [%s%s%s:%s%s%s];", s, r(2:middle-1), s, s, r(middle+2:end), s));
        else

        endif
endif
endfunction