Regular Expressions 101

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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

~
~
gxuJ

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 = "<url>\\s*\n" + " (?>\n" + " (?>\n" + " (?><lastmod>\\s*(?<mod>[^<]+)\\s*</lastmod>)\n" + " |\n" + " (?><changefreq>\\s*(?<freq>\\w+)\\s*</changefreq>)\n" + " |\n" + " (?><priority>\\s*(?<prio>[01](?>\\.\\d{1,2})?)\\s*</priority>)\n" + " )\\s*\n" + " ){0,3}\\s*\n" + " <loc>\\s*\n" + " (?<uri>[^<]+)\\s*\n" + " </loc>\\s*\n" + " (?>\n" + " (?>\n" + " (?><lastmod>\\s*(?<mod>[^<]+)\\s*</lastmod>)\n" + " |\n" + " (?><changefreq>\\s*(?<freq>\\w+)\\s*</changefreq>)\n" + " |\n" + " (?><priority>\\s*(?<prio>[01](?>\\.\\d{1,2})?)\\s*</priority>)\n" + " )\\s*\n" + " ){0,3}\\s*\n" + "</url>"; final String string = "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>\n" + "<urlset xmlns=\"http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9\">\n" + " <url>\n" + " <lastmod>2005-01-01</lastmod>\n" + " <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>\n" + " <priority>0.8</priority>\n" + " <loc>http://www.example.com/</loc>\n" + " </url>\n" + " <url>\n" + " <loc>http://www.example.com/catalog?item=12&amp;desc=vacation_hawaii</loc>\n" + " <changefreq>weekly</changefreq>\n" + " </url>\n" + " <url>\n" + " <loc>http://www.example.com/catalog?item=73&amp;desc=vacation_new_zealand</loc>\n" + " <lastmod>2004-12-23</lastmod>\n" + " <changefreq>weekly</changefreq>\n" + " </url>\n" + " <url>\n" + " <loc>http://www.example.com/catalog?item=74&amp;desc=vacation_newfoundland</loc>\n" + " <lastmod>2004-12-23T18:00:15+00:00</lastmod>\n" + " <priority>0.3</priority>\n" + " </url>\n" + " <url>\n" + " <loc>http://www.example.com/catalog?item=83&amp;desc=vacation_usa</loc>\n" + " <lastmod>2004-11-23</lastmod>\n" + " </url>\n" + "</urlset>"; final Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(regex, Pattern.COMMENTS | Pattern.UNICODE_CASE); 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