Regular Expressions 101

Save & Share

  • Regex Version: ver. 1
  • Update Regex
    ctrl+⇧+s
  • Save new Regex
    ctrl+s
  • Add to Community Library

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 = '1201 FOEZELOLIE 3 F1 II 3 1 L E2 P001 IBC02 R001MP19 T4 TP1 LGBF FL 2(D/E)S2, S2033 1201 FOEZELOLIE1201 FOEZELOLIE 3 F1 III 3 5 L E1 P001 IBC03 LP01 R001MP19 T2 TP1 LGBF FL 3(D/E)V12 S2 30 1201 FOEZELOLIE1202 DIESELOLIE of GASOLIE of STOOKOLIE, LICHT (vlampunt niet meer dan 60 °C)3 F1 III 3 640K 6645 L E1 P001 IBC03 LP01 R001MP19 T2 TP1 LGBF FL 3(D/E)V12 S2 30 1202 DIESELOLIE of GASOLIE of STOOKOLIE, LICHT (vlampunt niet meer dan 60 °C)1202 DIESELOLIE overeenkomstig norm EN 590:2013 + AC:2017 of GASOLIE of STOOKOLIE, LICHT met een vlampunt overeenkomstig norm EN 590:2013 +A1:20173 F1 III 3 640L 6645 L E1 P001 IBC03 LP01 R001MP19 T2 TP1 LGBF AT 3(D/E)V12 S2 30 1202 DIESELOLIE overeenkomstig norm EN 590:2013 + AC:2017 of GASOLIE of STOOKOLIE, LICHT met een vlampunt overeenkomstig norm EN 590:2013 +A1:20171202 DIESELOLIE of GASOLIE of STOOKOLIE, LICHT (vlampunt hoger dan 60 °C maar niet hoger dan 100 °C )3 F1 III 3 640M 6645 L E1 P001 IBC03 LP01 R001MP19 T2 TP1 LGBV AT 3(D/E)V12 30 1202 DIESELOLIE of GASOLIE of STOOKOLIE, LICHT (vlampunt hoger dan 60 °C maar niet hoger dan 100 °C )1203 BENZINE (motorbrandstof) 3 F1 II 3 243534 6641 L E2 P001 IBC02 R001 BB2MP19 T4 TP1 LGBF TU9 FL 2(D/E)S2, S2033 1203 BENZINE (motorbrandstof)1204 NITROGLYCERINE, OPLOSSING IN ALCOHOL, met niet meer dan 1 % nitroglycerine3 D II 3 601 1 L E0 P001 IBC02PP5 MP2 2(B)S2, S141204 NITROGLYCERINE, OPLOSSING IN ALCOHOL, met niet meer dan 1 % nitroglycerine1206 HEPTANEN 3 F1 II 3 1 L E2 P001 IBC02 R001MP19 T4 TP1 LGBF FL 2(D/E)S2, S2033 1206 HEPTANEN1207 HEXALDEHYDE 3 F1 III 3 5 L E1 P001 IBC03 LP01 R001MP19 T2 TP1 LGBF FL 3(D/E)V12 S2 30 '; my $regex = qr/\d{4}( [A-a]+).+?(?=\d{4}( [A-a]+) | $)/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