Regular Expressions 101

Pro

\(the literal ( (40₁₀ / 50₈ / 28₁₆)

\d{4}a Unicode decimal digit, repeated exactly 4 times

Non-Capturing Group(?:[\s–—-]+(?:\d{4}|present))?

?repeats the group contents below at most once:

Character Class[\s–—-]+

+matches at least one character from the set below:

\sa Unicode whitespace character

–the literal – (8211₁₀ / 20023₈ / 2013₁₆)

—the literal — (8212₁₀ / 20024₈ / 2014₁₆)

-the literal - (45₁₀ / 55₈ / 2D₁₆)

Non-Capturing Group(?:\d{4}|present)

1st Alternative\d{4}

\d{4}a Unicode decimal digit, repeated exactly 4 times

2nd Alternativepresent

presentthe literal text present (case insensitive)

\)the literal ) (41₁₀ / 51₈ / 29₁₆)

Global pattern flags

g modifier: global. Finds all matches instead of stopping after the first

i modifier: insensitive. Matches without distinguishing uppercase and lowercase letters

Detailed match information will be displayed here automatically.

25 tokens

Regular Expression

\(\d{4}(?:[\s–—-]+(?:\d{4}|present))?\)

New

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1891–1892) (series), (1892) (novel), Arthur Conan Doyle
This is Agent (1857), the years were (1987-1868), which lasted from (1678- Present)

Extraction

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1891–1892) (series), (1892) (novel), Arthur Conan Doyle
This is Agent (1857), the years were (1987-1868), which lasted from (1678- Present)