Regular Expressions 101

Save & Manage Regex

  • Current Version: 1
  • Save & Share
  • Community Library

Flavor

  • PCRE2 (PHP)
  • ECMAScript (JavaScript)
  • Python
  • Golang
  • Java
  • .NET 7.0 (C#)
  • Rust
  • PCRE (Legacy)
  • Regex Flavor Guide

Function

  • Match
  • Substitution
  • List
  • Unit Tests
Sponsors
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]
  • Character class intersection
    [\w&&[^\d]]
  • 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
Processing...

Test String

Code Generator

Language

Generated Code

import re regex = re.compile(r"(\S| )+\n(\S| )+\n(\S| )+\n((\S| )+|)NSW \d{4}") test_str = ("/////// 4 lines & 3rd line is suburb only\n" "SCIENTIFIC MOTOR BODYWORKS LP\n" "7-9 PERRY STREET\n" "MATRAVILLE\n" "NSW 2036\n" "///////\n" "au\n" "Mascot Auto Repairs\"cod**\n" "155 Coward Street\n" "Mascot NSW 2020\n" "////////////////////////\n" "Mascot Airport Service Station *cod*\n" "Inside Car Wash\n" "237 O'Riordan St\n" "Mascot NSW 2020\n" "////////////////////////maps\n" "7/30-32 Beaconsfield Street\n" "Alexandria NSW 2015\n" "////////////////////////\n" "Pedders Mascot\n" "Unit 1\n" "20 Ricketty Street\n" "Mascot NSW 2020\n" "/////////////////////\n" "Pay Charge\n" "Mr Bump Smash Repair\n" "Unit 12/122 Station Rd\n" "Seven Hills NSW 2147\n" "////////////////////\n" "Pay Charge\n" "Mr Bump Smash Repair\n" "Unit 12 122 Station Rd\n" "Seven Hills NSW 2147\n" "/////// suburb spelling error, character in street line\n" "Woollahra Auto***cod***\n" "120, Oxford St\n" "Woolahra NSW 1350\n" "/// name not complete\n" "North Caringbah Smash Rep\n" "47 Captain Cook Drive\n" "Caringbah NSW 2229\n" "/////\n" "BM Pro Service Centre\n" "Unit8/ 1a Pritchard Plac\n" "Peakhurst NSW 2210 \n" "////\n" "embassy smash repairs\n" "unit 5d 23-25 windsor rd\n" "northmead nsw 2152") matches = regex.finditer(test_str) for match_num, match in enumerate(matches, start=1): print(f"Match {match_num} was found at {match.start()}-{match.end()}: {match.group()}") for group_num, group in enumerate(match.groups(), start=1): print(f"Group {group_num} found at {match.start(group_num)}-{match.end(group_num)}: {group}")

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 Python, please visit: https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html