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

/
/
gm

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 = "\\"; final String string = "----//---------██████\n" + "\\\\--\\/--//----████████\n" + "-\\\\-▌-//---██████████████\n" + "--\\\\▌//----(▓)--------(▓)\n" + "---\\▌/----(▓)---◒►◒---(▓)\n" + "----▌------(▓)-- = --(▓)\n" + "----▌--------(▓)---(▓)\n" + "----▌-----\\(▓)-- ✺ --(▓)/\n" + "----▌----(▓)---- ✺ ----(▓)\n" + "----▌---(▓)----- ✺ -----(▓)\n" + "----▌---(▓)----- ✺ -----(▓)\n" + "----▌----(▓)---- ✺ ----(▓)\n" + "-----------(▓)(▓)▓(▓)(▓)Reindeer: Dasher - 18 snowman - noh38i1294ry28q9aoeghfdbnfnol - Reindeer: Dancer - 22 snowm@n\n" + "▌░░░░██████████████████░░░▐\n" + "▌░░░█████████████████████░▐\n" + "▌░█████████████████████████\n" + "█▐█████▐░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░█\n" + "▌█████▌█░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░█\n" + "▐█████▌█▀▀▀█████▀▀██████▀▀█\n" + "▐█████▐█░▌▌░░░░░▌▐░░░░░▐▐░█\n" + "▌█████▐█▌░▌▐▌█▐▐▌▐▌█▐▐▐─▐░█\n" + "▌█████▐█░▌▌▀▌██▐▌▐▌██▐▀─▐░█\n" + "▌█████▐█▌░▌──────▐──────▐░█\n" + "▌▐█▄█▌█░░░▌───▀▄▄▄▄▀───▐▐░█\n" + "█▌███▌█░▌░▌▌─▐░░░░░░──▐▐░░█\n" + "█▀░░░░▀█░░▌▐▐░▐▄▄▄▄▌░─▌▐▐░█\n" + "▌░░░░░░█▐░░▌░░▌▀▀▀▀─░░─░░░█\n" + "█░░░░░▐▄░▌░░▐░▐▀▀▀▀░░░▐░▐░█\n" + "██▄▄▄▄██▐░▌░░▐░░▐░░░░▐░░░▄█\n" + "████████▄░░▐░░▐░░▐░▐░░░▐▄██\n" + "██████████▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄████\n" + "Reindeer: Prancer - 17 snow-man - ae234hi92y489snadklnzxlknikofhewiaofnkxl - Reindeer: Vixen - 19 snow man - m,xn jvkbsjnas kldsasifodska asdak - Reindeer: Comet- 28 snow%man -saskfoldhasiofdnsmklnkxofhio\n" + "__________(█)\n" + "_______██████\n" + "_____ ████████\n" + "___███████████\n" + "___ (░░░░░░░)░░░)\n" + "___(░(░█░░█░)░░░)\n" + "__ (░░(░░●░░░)░░░)\n" + "__ (░░░░◡░░)░░░░)\n" + "_██(░░░░░░░░░░)██\n" + "_███(░░░░░░░░░)███\n" + "████ ██(░░░)██ ████\n" + "████ █████████ ███\n" + "████ ████░████ ███\n" + "(░░)_ ▓▓▓▓▌▓▐▓▓▓_(░░)\n" + "(██) ███████████ (██)\n" + "_____█████░█████_▓▓▓\\\n" + "_____█████-,█████▓▓▓▓▓)\n" + "_____█████-,█████▓▓▓▓▓)\n" + "___(░░░░░░)(░░░░░) ▓▓▓▓)\n" + "______(███)_(███)▓▓▓▓▓▓)\n" + "____ (████)_(████)▓▓▓▓▓)\n" + "Reindeer: Cupid - 21 snow#man\n" + "░░░░░░░░░░ ★\n" + "░░░░░░░░░░██\n" + "░░░░░░░░░████\n" + "░░░░░░░██▒▒▒▒██\n" + "░░░░░██▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒██\n" + "░░░░░░░██▒▒▒▒██\n" + "░░░░░░░░██████\n" + "░░░░░░░███▓▓███\n" + "░░░░░░░░█▓▓▓▓█\n" + "░░░░░░░█▓▓▓▓▓▓█\n" + "░░░░░░█▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓█\n" + "░░░░░█▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓█\n" + "░░░████▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓████\n" + "░░█▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓█\n" + "░███████▓▓▓▓▓▓███████\n" + "░░░░░░█▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓█\n" + "░░░░░█▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓█\n" + "░░░░█▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓█\n" + "░░███▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓███\n" + "░█▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓█\n" + "███████▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓███████\n" + "░░░░█▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓█\n" + "░░░█▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓█\n" + "░░█▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓█\n" + "░██▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓██\n" + "██████████████████████\n" + "░░░░░░░░██████ Reindeer: Donder - 16 snow&man\n" + "_____________________________ (██)\n" + "__________(█)_______________██████\n" + "_________(███)___________ █████████\n" + "________(█████)________████████████\n" + "______ (███████)______ (░░░░░░░░░░░)\n" + "_____(█████████)_____(░░░░█░░█░░░░)\n" + "____(██░░░░░░░██)___ (░░(░░░●░░░)░░░)\n" + "_____▒░░█░░█░░▒____ (░░░(░░◡░░)░░░░)\n" + "____▒░░░░░░░░░░▒___ (░░░░░░░░░░░░░)\n" + "____▒░░█░░░█░░░▒___██(░░░░░░░░░)██\n" + "____▒░░░███░░░░▒___███(░░░░░░)████\n" + "_____▒░░░░░░░░▒___████████████████\n" + "_____██░░░░░░██___████████████████\n" + "____▒▒███████▒▒___███ █████████ ███\n" + "___▒░░░█████░░░▒__███ █████████ ███\n" + "_▒░▒░░░███░░░▒░▒__███ █████████ ███\n" + "_▒░░▒░░███░░▒░░▒_ ███ █████████ ███\n" + "_▒░░░▒░███░▒░░░▒_ (░░) █████████_(░░)\n" + "__▒░░▒░███░▒░░▒_______█████████__(██)\n" + "_▒▒▒▒░░███░░▒▒▒▒_____█████████__/▓▓▓\\\n" + "_▒░░░░░░░░░░░░░▒____ ████__████▓▓▓▓▓▓)\n" + "▒░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░▒___████__████▓▓▓▓▓▓▓)\n" + "▒░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░▒___████__████▓▓▓▓▓▓▓)\n" + "▒░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░▒__(░░░░)_(░░░░)▓▓▓▓▓▓)\n" + "▒░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░▒___████__████▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓)\n" + "_▒░░░░░░░░░░░░░▒____ ████__████▓▓▓▓▓▓▓)\n" + "__▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒______████__████▓▓▓▓▓▓)Reindeer: Rudolph - 31 snow-man\n\n"; final Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(regex, Pattern.MULTILINE); 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