Regular Expressions 101

Explanation

Pro

\ban ASCII word boundary

jackthe literal text jack (case sensitive)

Non-Capturing Group(?:[ &-]+|([ -]?)(?:and|n)\1)?

?repeats the group contents below at most once:

1st Alternative[ &-]+

Character Class[ &-]+

+matches at least one character from the set below:

the literal (32₁₀ / 40₈ / 20₁₆)

&the literal & (38₁₀ / 46₈ / 26₁₆)

-the literal - (45₁₀ / 55₈ / 2D₁₆)

2nd Alternative([ -]?)(?:and|n)\1

Group 1([ -]?)

Character Class[ -]?

?matches at most one character from the set below:

the literal (32₁₀ / 40₈ / 20₁₆)

-the literal - (45₁₀ / 55₈ / 2D₁₆)

Non-Capturing Group(?:and|n)

1st Alternativeand

andthe literal text and (case sensitive)

2nd Alternativen

nthe literal n (110₁₀ / 156₈ / 6E₁₆) (case sensitive)

\1the text saved by group 1

jillthe literal text jill (case sensitive)

\ban ASCII word boundary

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

Match Information

Detailed match information will be displayed here automatically.

Quick Reference

25 tokens

Regular Expression

\bjack(?:[ &-]+|([ -]?)(?:and|n)\1)?jill\b

New

jackjill
jack jill
jack-jill
jack&jill
jack & jill
jack-&-jill
jack and jill
jackandjill
jack-and-jill
jack n jill
jackandjill

jack-andjill

jackjill | jack jill | jack-jill | jack&jill | jack & jill | jack-&-jill | jack and jill | jackandjill | jack-and-jill | jack n jill