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

$re = '/\b(4[0-9]{3}[ -])([0-9]{4}[ -]){2}[0-9]\b|\b4[0-9][0-9]{11}\b|\b(4[0-9]{3}[ -])([0-9]{4}[ -]){2}(?:[0-9]{4})?$\b|\b4[0-9][0-9]{14}\b|\b(4[0-9]{3}[ -])([0-9]{4}[ -]){3}(?:[0-9]{3})?$\b|\b4[0-9][0-9]{17}\b/m'; $str = 'Visa: Requirements: Visa numbers start with the number 4 and have either 13, 16, or 19 digits (new cards). Pattern Parts: Starts with number 4 and 13 length: 1) \\b(4[0-9]{3}[ -])([0-9]{4}[ -]){2}[0-9]\\b|\\b4[0-9][0-9]{11}\\b Starts with number 4 and 16 length: 2) \\b(4[0-9]{3}[ -])([0-9]{4}[ -]){2}(?:[0-9]{4})?$\\b|\\b4[0-9][0-9]{14}\\b Starts with number 4 and 19 length: 3) \\b(4[0-9]{3}[ -])([0-9]{4}[ -]){3}(?:[0-9]{3})?$\\b|\\b4[0-9][0-9]{17}\\b Combining 1-3 to form one pattern: \\b(4[0-9]{3}[ -])([0-9]{4}[ -]){2}[0-9]\\b|\\b4[0-9][0-9]{11}\\b|\\b(4[0-9]{3}[ -])([0-9]{4}[ -]){2}(?:[0-9]{4})?$\\b|\\b4[0-9][0-9]{14}\\b|\\b(4[0-9]{3}[ -])([0-9]{4}[ -]){3}(?:[0-9]{3})?$\\b|\\b4[0-9][0-9]{17}\\b Test Cases: Should fire: 13 length, no space, start with 4 4123123412341 13 length, dashes, start with 4 4123-1234-1234-1 13 length, spaces, start with 4 4123 1234 1234 1 16 length, no space, start with 4 4221123412341234 16 length, dashes, start with 4 4221-1234-1234-1234 16 length, spaces, start with 4 4221 1234 1234 1234 19 length, no space, start with 4 4241123412341234123 19 length, dashes, start with 4 4241-1234-1234-1234-123 19 length, spaces, start with 4 4241 1234 1234 1234-123 Should not fire: 16 length, no space, not start with 51-55 5623123412341234 16 length, dashes, not start with 51-55 5623-1234-1234-1234 16 length, spaces, not start with 51-55 5623 1234 1234 1234 16 length, no space, not start with 2221-2720 2220123412341234 16 length, dashes, not start with 2221-2720 2220-1234-1234-1234 16 length, spaces, not start with 2221-2720 2220 1234 1234 1234 Non 16 length, matches 51 pattern start 5123-1234-1234-123 Non 16 length, matches 2221 pattern start 2221-1234-1234-123 Malformed, matches 51 pattern start 51-2312-34-1234-1234 '; preg_match_all($re, $str, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER, 0); // Print the entire match result var_dump($matches);

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 PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php