Regular Expressions 101

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An explanation of your regex will be automatically generated as you type.
Detailed match information will be displayed here automatically.
  • All Tokens
  • Common Tokens
  • General Tokens
  • Anchors
  • Meta Sequences
  • Quantifiers
  • Group Constructs
  • Character Classes
  • Flags/Modifiers
  • Substitution
  • A single character of: a, b or c
    [abc]
  • A character except: a, b or c
    [^abc]
  • A character in the range: a-z
    [a-z]
  • A character not in the range: a-z
    [^a-z]
  • A character in the range: a-z or A-Z
    [a-zA-Z]
  • Any single character
    .
  • Alternate - match either a or b
    a|b
  • Any whitespace character
    \s
  • Any non-whitespace character
    \S
  • Any digit
    \d
  • Any non-digit
    \D
  • Any word character
    \w
  • Any non-word character
    \W
  • Non-capturing group
    (?:...)
  • Capturing group
    (...)
  • Zero or one of a
    a?
  • Zero or more of a
    a*
  • One or more of a
    a+
  • Exactly 3 of a
    a{3}
  • 3 or more of a
    a{3,}
  • Between 3 and 6 of a
    a{3,6}
  • Start of string
    ^
  • End of string
    $
  • A word boundary
    \b
  • Non-word boundary
    \B

Regular Expression
No Match

~
~
isg

Test String

Code Generator

Language

Generated Code

import java.util.regex.Matcher; import java.util.regex.Pattern; public class Example { public static void main(String[] args) { final String regex = "<dl>(?:[^<]+|<(?!/?dl\\b)|(?R))*+</dl>"; final String string = "<p>\n" + " <span style=\"visibility:hidden\" id=\"Synonyme\">\n" + " <span id=\"Anker:Synonyme\"></span>\n" + " </span>\n" + "</p>\n" + "<div style=\"margin-bottom:-0.5em; font-weight:bold;\" title=\"bedeutungsgleich gebrauchte Wörter\">Synonyme:</div>\n" + "<dl>\n" + " <dd>[1] <a href=\"/w/index.php?title=Blutsverwandte&amp;action=edit&amp;redlink=1\" class=\"new\" title=\"Blutsverwandte (Seite nicht vorhanden)\">Blutsverwandte</a>,\n" + " <a href=\"/wiki/Sippe\" title=\"Sippe\">Sippe</a>\n" + " <dl>\n" + " <dd>[1a] <a href=\"/wiki/Kernfamilie\" title=\"Kernfamilie\">Kernfamilie</a></dd>\n" + " <dd>[1b] <i>abwertend, salopp:</i> <a href=\"/wiki/Mischpoke\" title=\"Mischpoke\">Mischpoke</a></dd>\n" + " </dl>\n" + " </dd>\n" + " <dd>[2] <a href=\"/wiki/Abart\" title=\"Abart\">Abart</a>,\n" + " <a href=\"/wiki/Art\" title=\"Art\">Art</a>,\n" + " <a href=\"/wiki/Bereich\" title=\"Bereich\">Bereich</a>,\n" + " <a href=\"/wiki/Departement\" title=\"Departement\">Departement</a>,\n" + " <a href=\"/wiki/Dialekt\" title=\"Dialekt\">Dialekt</a>,\n" + " <a href=\"/wiki/Fach\" title=\"Fach\">Fach</a>,\n" + " <a href=\"/wiki/Gattung\" title=\"Gattung\">Gattung</a>,\n" + " <a href=\"/wiki/Genus\" title=\"Genus\">Genus</a>,\n" + " <a href=\"/wiki/Geschlecht\" title=\"Geschlecht\">Geschlecht</a>,\n" + " <a href=\"/wiki/Gruppe\" title=\"Gruppe\">Gruppe</a>,\n" + " <a href=\"/wiki/Kategorie\" title=\"Kategorie\">Kategorie</a>,\n" + " <a href=\"/wiki/Linie\" title=\"Linie\">Linie</a>,\n" + " <a href=\"/wiki/Rasse\" title=\"Rasse\">Rasse</a>,\n" + " <a href=\"/wiki/Reihe\" title=\"Reihe\">Reihe</a>, \n" + " <a href=\"/wiki/Rubrik\" title=\"Rubrik\">Rubrik</a>,\n" + " <a href=\"/wiki/Schlag\" title=\"Schlag\">Schlag</a>\n" + " </dd>\n" + "</dl>"; final Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(regex, Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE | Pattern.DOTALL); final Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(string); while (matcher.find()) { System.out.println("Full match: " + matcher.group(0)); for (int i = 1; i <= matcher.groupCount(); i++) { System.out.println("Group " + i + ": " + matcher.group(i)); } } } }

Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for Java, please visit: https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/util/regex/Pattern.html