Regular Expressions 101

Explanation

Pro

Non-Capturing Group(?:(?P<inverted>\!) )?

?repeats the group contents below at most once:

Group inverted(?P<inverted>\!)

\!the literal ! (33₁₀ / 41₈ / 21₁₆)

the literal (32₁₀ / 40₈ / 20₁₆)

Group names(?P<names>\-{1,2}\S+)

\-{1,2}the literal - (45₁₀ / 55₈ / 2D₁₆) , repeated between 1 and 2 times

\S+any non-whitespace character, repeated at least once

Group 3($| (?P<values>.+(?=(?: [\!|\-])|$)))

1st Alternative$

$end of string, or before its final line terminator

2nd Alternative (?P<values>.+(?=(?: [\!|\-])|$))

the literal (32₁₀ / 40₈ / 20₁₆)

Group values(?P<values>.+(?=(?: [\!|\-])|$))

.+any character (except for line terminators), repeated at least once

Positive Lookahead(?=(?: [\!|\-])|$)

1st Alternative(?: [\!|\-])

Non-Capturing Group(?: [\!|\-])

the literal (32₁₀ / 40₈ / 20₁₆)

Character Class[\!|\-]

\!the literal ! (33₁₀ / 41₈ / 21₁₆)

|the literal | (124₁₀ / 174₈ / 7C₁₆)

\-the literal - (45₁₀ / 55₈ / 2D₁₆)

2nd Alternative$

$end of string, or before its final line terminator

Global pattern flags

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

U modifier: Ungreedy. Quantifiers are lazy by default. A trailing ? makes a quantifier greedy

Detailed match information will be displayed here automatically.

25 tokens

(?:(?P<inverted>\!) )?(?P<names>\-{1,2}\S+)($| (?P<values>.+(?=(?: [\!|\-])|$)))

New

-a val1 ! -b val2 --custom "string with crazy -a --test stuff inside" --param-with-dash val1 val2 -c ! -d ! --test

-a val1 ! -b val2 --custom "string with crazy -a --test stuff inside" --param-with-dash val1 val2 -c ! -d ! --test