Regular Expressions 101

Save & Share

Flavor

  • PCRE2 (PHP >=7.3)
  • PCRE (PHP <7.3)
  • ECMAScript (JavaScript)
  • Python
  • Golang
  • Java 8
  • .NET 7.0 (C#)
  • Rust
  • Regex Flavor Guide

Function

  • Match
  • Substitution
  • List
  • Unit Tests

Tools

Sponsors
There are currently no sponsors. Become a sponsor today!
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

use strict; my $str = '/* Regular local phone number (XXX) XXX-XXXX */ 1231231231 123-1231231 123123-1231 123-123 1231 123 123-1231 123-123-1231 (123)123-1231 (123)123 1231 (123) 123-1231 (123) 123 1231 1(212)2231141 1 232 442 1123 1-233-223-4433 12232234433 1(732) 1131131 /* International codes +XXX (XXX) XXX-XXXX */ +99 1234567890 +991234567890 /* Extensions (XXX) XXX-XXXX Ext. XXX... */ 1234567890 Ext 1123123 1234567890Ext 1123123 1234567890 Ext1123123 1234567890Ext1123123 1234567890 Ext: 1123123 1234567890Ext: 1123123 1234567890 Ext:1123123 1234567890Ext:1123123 1234567890 Ext. 1123123 1234567890Ext. 1123123 1234567890 Ext.1123123 1234567890Ext.1123123 1234567890 ext 1123123 1234567890ext 1123123 1234567890 ext1123123 1234567890ext1123123 1234567890 ext: 1123123 1234567890ext: 1123123 1234567890 ext:1123123 1234567890ext:1123123 1234567890 X 1123123 1234567890X1123123 1234567890X 1123123 1234567890 X1123123 1234567890 x 1123123 1234567890x1123123 1234567890 x1123123 1234567890x 1123123'; my $regex = qr/(1(\s|-)?)?(\+\d{1,3}\s?)?((\(\d{3}\)\s?)|(\d{3})(\s|-?))(\d{3}(\s|-?))(\d{4})(\s?(([E|e]xt[:|.|]?)|x|X)(\s?\d+))?/mp; if ( $str =~ /$regex/g ) { print "Whole match is ${^MATCH} and its start/end positions can be obtained via \$-[0] and \$+[0]\n"; # print "Capture Group 1 is $1 and its start/end positions can be obtained via \$-[1] and \$+[1]\n"; # print "Capture Group 2 is $2 ... and so on\n"; } # ${^POSTMATCH} and ${^PREMATCH} are also available with the use of '/p' # Named capture groups can be called via $+{name}

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 Perl, please visit: http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html