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
  • Match everything enclosed
    (?:...)
  • Capture everything enclosed
    (...)
  • 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

const regex = /span id="(.*)" style="width:0px;"> *<\/span>.*?-(.*)/gm; // Alternative syntax using RegExp constructor // const regex = new RegExp('span id="(.*)" style="width:0px;"> *<\\\/span>.*?-(.*)', 'gm') const str = `<p><span id="XL" style="width:0px;"> </span>XL - <a class="external text" href="https://w.amazon.com/index.php/Amazon%20XL%20-%203P%20Heavy%20Bulky%20with%20Services" rel="nofollow"</p>zon XL</a>, aka Unified Heavy/Bulky with Services <p><span id="XLR" style="width:0px;"> </span>XLR - AB UX Leadership Review (<a class="external text" href="https://quip-amazon.com/Q0MxAQlIvbrR" rel="nofollow">1</a> <a class="exter</p>text" href="https://quip-amazon.com/dVPrAHLgg2hJ" rel="nofollow">2</a> <a class="external text" href="https://quip-amazon.com/dVPrAHLgg2hJ#bNS9CAAGh1S" rel="nofollow">3</a>) </p>span id="XML" style="width:0px;"> </span>XML - <a class="external text" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML" rel="nofollow">Extensible Markup Language</a> </p>span id="XPF" style="width:0px;"> </span>XPF - Cross Platform </p>span id="XRD" style="width:0px;"> </span>XRD - Cross-Functional Response Document </p>span id="XRP" style="width:0px;"> </span>XRP - Cross-Region Peering </div><h2><span class="mw-headline" id="Y">Y</span></h2>`; // Reset `lastIndex` if this regex is defined globally // regex.lastIndex = 0; let m; while ((m = regex.exec(str)) !== null) { // This is necessary to avoid infinite loops with zero-width matches if (m.index === regex.lastIndex) { regex.lastIndex++; } // The result can be accessed through the `m`-variable. m.forEach((match, groupIndex) => { console.log(`Found match, group ${groupIndex}: ${match}`); }); }

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 JavaScript, please visit: https://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Web/JavaScript/Guide/Regular_Expressions