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

/
/
gmx

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 = "^(?: # non-capture group (repeat)\n" + " (?| # branch reset for group 1\n" + " ([^)(><\\n])| # either non-bracket... or:\n" + " <(?=.*(>))| # if < open angle capture > to group 1\n" + " >(?=.*(<))| # if > capture opening < to group 1\n" + " \\((?=.*(\\)))| # same for (), if ( capture ) to group 1\n" + " \\)(?=.*(\\()) # if ) catpure ( to group 1\n" + " )(?=.*((?(2)\\1\\2|\\1))$) # cond (2): if not outer chr (fwd ref)\n" + ")*? # as few as possible (lazy) / eof non-cap\n" + "[^)(><\\n]? # the middle character (no parens)\n" + "\\2$ # the right part (group 2 capture)"; final String string = "(_)tar<>rat(_)\n" + ")()_<(*&bab&*)>_()(\n" + ")(*?*)(\n" + "()<_<oxxo>_>()\n" + "<__>w(owiwo)w<__>\n" + "a(t<()((<oyo>))()>t)a\n\n" + "v\n\n" + "(_)tar<>rap(_)\n" + ")()_<(*&bab&*)>_))(\n" + ")(*?*)(.\n" + "()<-<oxxo>_>()\n" + "<__>w(ow(wo)w<__>\n" + "at<()((<oyo>))()>t)a"; final Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(regex, Pattern.MULTILINE | Pattern.COMMENTS); 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