Regular Expressions 101

Save & Share

Flavor

  • PCRE2 (PHP >=7.3)
  • PCRE (PHP <7.3)
  • ECMAScript (JavaScript)
  • Python
  • Golang
  • Java 8
  • .NET 7.0 (C#)
  • Rust
  • Regex Flavor Guide

Function

  • Match
  • Substitution
  • List
  • Unit Tests

Tools

Sponsors
There are currently no sponsors. Become a sponsor today!
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

/
/
gm

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 = "^([0-9a-f]{1,4}:)+(([0-9a-f]{1,4})?:)+([0-9a-f]{1,4})(?= )"; final String string = "2a03:2880:30ff:4::face:b00c --\n" + "2600:387:f:4533::8 - - \n" + "2600:387:5:805::84 - -\n" + "2a02:120b:2c12:df00:bc9f:adfd:eac6:4011 - -\n" + "2601:602:8b00:e50::c1f0 - -\n" + "2409:4042:112:8a7b::27bd:70b1 - -\n" + "2603:7000:a803:beb2:e0c0:3f:2a1b:5d60 - - \n" + "::1 - -\n" + ":a:1 - -\n" + ":bh:lh:1 - -\n" + "1:1:fEd1:1:abdc:1 - -\n" + "::ffff:192.0.2.128 - -\n" + "0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0001 - -\n" + "2001:0db8:0000:0000:0000:ff00:0042:8329 - -\n" + "2001:db8:0:0:0:ff00:42:8329 - -\n" + "2001:db8::ff00:42:8329 - -\n" + "2001:0db8:0000:0000:0000:ff00:0042:8329 - -\n" + "2a03:2880:30ff:4::face:b00c --\n" + "2600:387:f:4533::8 - - \n" + "2600:387:5:805::84 - -\n" + "2a02:120b:2c12:df00:bc9f:adfd:eac6:4011 - -\n" + "2600:387:0:80f::4a - - "; final Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(regex, Pattern.MULTILINE); 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