Regular Expressions 101

Pro

Group 1([\w-]+)

Character Class[\w-]+

+matches at least one character from the set below:

\wa Unicode word character

-the literal - (45₁₀ / 55₈ / 2D₁₆)

:the literal : (58₁₀ / 72₈ / 3A₁₆)

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

Group 2(.*?)

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

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

1st Alternative[\w-]+:

Character Class[\w-]+

+matches at least one character from the set below:

\wa Unicode word character

-the literal - (45₁₀ / 55₈ / 2D₁₆)

:the literal : (58₁₀ / 72₈ / 3A₁₆)

2nd Alternative$

$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

([\w-]+):\s*(.*?)(?=[\w-]+:|$)

New

n: tom
n: tom preston
n: tom l: london
n: tom preston l: london derry

n: tom
n: tom preston
n: tom l: london
n: tom preston l: london derry