Regular Expressions 101

Explanation

Pro

^start of line

\s*any whitespace character, repeated any number of times

Non-Capturing Group(?:<path>|<paths>)

1st Alternative<path>

<path>the literal text <path> (case sensitive)

2nd Alternative<paths>

<paths>the literal text <paths> (case sensitive)

Group 1(.*)

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

$end of line

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

^\s*(?:<path>|<paths>)(.*)$

<root>
  <path>/my/data</path>
  <paths>/global/data</paths>
</root>

<root>
  <path>/my/data</path>
  <paths>/global/data</paths>
</root>