Regular Expressions 101

1st Alternative(?<=\d\.\s)[a-zA-Z, ]+(?=\[key])

Positive Lookbehind(?<=\d\.\s)

\da Unicode decimal digit

\.the literal . (46₁₀ / 56₈ / 2E₁₆)

\sa Unicode whitespace character

Character Class[a-zA-Z, ]+

+matches at least one character from the set below:

a-zone character from a (97₁₀) to z (122₁₀) (case sensitive)

A-Zone character from A (65₁₀) to Z (90₁₀) (case sensitive)

,the literal , (44₁₀ / 54₈ / 2C₁₆)

the literal (32₁₀ / 40₈ / 20₁₆)

Positive Lookahead(?=\[key])

\[the literal [ (91₁₀ / 133₈ / 5B₁₆)

key]the literal text key] (case sensitive)

2nd Alternative(?<=1\.\s)(?!.*\[key])[a-zA-Z, ]+

Positive Lookbehind(?<=1\.\s)

1the literal 1 (49₁₀ / 61₈ / 31₁₆)

\.the literal . (46₁₀ / 56₈ / 2E₁₆)

\sa Unicode whitespace character

Negative Lookahead(?!.*\[key])

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

\[the literal [ (91₁₀ / 133₈ / 5B₁₆)

key]the literal text key] (case sensitive)

Character Class[a-zA-Z, ]+

+matches at least one character from the set below:

a-zone character from a (97₁₀) to z (122₁₀) (case sensitive)

A-Zone character from A (65₁₀) to Z (90₁₀) (case sensitive)

,the literal , (44₁₀ / 54₈ / 2C₁₆)

the literal (32₁₀ / 40₈ / 20₁₆)

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.

25 tokens

Regular Expression

(?<=\d\.\s)[a-zA-Z, ]+(?=\[key])|(?<=1\.\s)(?!.*\[key])[a-zA-Z, ]+

New

1. Jane, Doe2. Good, Jay3. Turn, Bob[key]
1. Jane, Doe2. Good, Jay3. Turn, Bob
1. Jane, Doe2. Good, Jay[key]3. Turn, Bob
1. Jane, Doe[key]2. Good, Jay3. Turn, Bob

Extraction

1. Jane, Doe2. Good, Jay3. Turn, Bob[key]
1. Jane, Doe2. Good, Jay3. Turn, Bob
1. Jane, Doe2. Good, Jay[key]3. Turn, Bob
1. Jane, Doe[key]2. Good, Jay3. Turn, Bob