Regular Expressions 101

Negative Lookahead(?!(.*A){4,})

Group 1(.*A){4,}

{4,}repeats the group contents below at least 4 times:

.*any character (except for line terminators), repeated any number of times

Athe literal A (65₁₀ / 101₈ / 41₁₆) (case sensitive)

Negative Lookahead(?!(.*P){3,})

Group 2(.*P){3,}

{3,}repeats the group contents below at least 3 times:

.*any character (except for line terminators), repeated any number of times

Pthe literal P (80₁₀ / 120₈ / 50₁₆) (case sensitive)

Negative Lookahead(?!(.*L){2,})

Group 3(.*L){2,}

{2,}repeats the group contents below at least 2 times:

.*any character (except for line terminators), repeated any number of times

Lthe literal L (76₁₀ / 114₈ / 4C₁₆) (case sensitive)

Negative Lookahead(?!(.*E){2,})

Group 4(.*E){2,}

{2,}repeats the group contents below at least 2 times:

.*any character (except for line terminators), repeated any number of times

Ethe literal E (69₁₀ / 105₈ / 45₁₆) (case sensitive)

Negative Lookahead(?!(.*S){2,})

Group 5(.*S){2,}

{2,}repeats the group contents below at least 2 times:

.*any character (except for line terminators), repeated any number of times

Sthe literal S (83₁₀ / 123₈ / 53₁₆) (case sensitive)

^start of line

Character Class[APLES]*

*matches any number of characters from the set below:

Athe literal A (65₁₀ / 101₈ / 41₁₆) (case sensitive)

Pthe literal P (80₁₀ / 120₈ / 50₁₆) (case sensitive)

Lthe literal L (76₁₀ / 114₈ / 4C₁₆) (case sensitive)

Ethe literal E (69₁₀ / 105₈ / 45₁₆) (case sensitive)

Sthe literal S (83₁₀ / 123₈ / 53₁₆) (case sensitive)

$end of line

Global pattern flags

g modifier: global. Finds all matches instead of stopping after the first

m modifier: multiline. Causes ^ and $ to match the start and end of each line, not only the start and end of the string

Detailed match information will be displayed here automatically.

Search reference

Regular Expression

(?!(.*A){4,})(?!(.*P){3,})(?!(.*L){2,})(?!(.*E){2,})(?!(.*S){2,})^[APLES]*$

APPLE
APPLES
PALE
ALE
APPPLE
APPLLE