regex101: Python Substitution Workspace

Pro

Non-Capturing Group(?:[ *]|^)

1st Alternative[ *]

Character Class[ *]

the literal (32₁₀ / 40₈ / 20₁₆)

*the literal * (42₁₀ / 52₈ / 2A₁₆)

2nd Alternative^

^start of line

Group 1([a-zA-Z]+(?:-[a-zA-Z]+)*)

Character Class[a-zA-Z]+

+matches at least one character from the set below:

a-zone character from a (97₁₀) to z (122₁₀) (case sensitive)

A-Zone character from A (65₁₀) to Z (90₁₀) (case sensitive)

Non-Capturing Group(?:-[a-zA-Z]+)*

*repeats the group contents below any number of times:

-the literal - (45₁₀ / 55₈ / 2D₁₆)

Character Class[a-zA-Z]+

+matches at least one character from the set below:

a-zone character from a (97₁₀) to z (122₁₀) (case sensitive)

A-Zone character from A (65₁₀) to Z (90₁₀) (case sensitive)

Positive Lookahead(?= |$|[.,!?:]+(?!\S))

1st Alternative

the literal (32₁₀ / 40₈ / 20₁₆)

2nd Alternative$

$end of line

3rd Alternative[.,!?:]+(?!\S)

Character Class[.,!?:]+

+matches at least one character from the set below:

.the literal . (46₁₀ / 56₈ / 2E₁₆)

,the literal , (44₁₀ / 54₈ / 2C₁₆)

!the literal ! (33₁₀ / 41₈ / 21₁₆)

?the literal ? (63₁₀ / 77₈ / 3F₁₆)

:the literal : (58₁₀ / 72₈ / 3A₁₆)

Negative Lookahead(?!\S)

\Sany character that is not Unicode whitespace

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

25 tokens

Regular Expression

(?:[ *]|^)([a-zA-Z]+(?:-[a-zA-Z]+)*)(?= |$|[.,!?:]+(?!\S))

there should be 9 valid  words, including: a well-behave, right?
blabla! bla121 {{blabla123bla.. bla-blablabla!! b;a-bla@!. blabla bla-bla-bla-bla **bla-bla
{{)foo! ~~foo121 foo--foo?. foo-foo?!{. @foo-foo! f 23 foo2 f-ff-fff-ffff!.,?  **foo-f

Extraction

there should be 9 valid  words, including: a well-behave, right?
blabla! bla121 {{blabla123bla.. bla-blablabla!! b;a-bla@!. blabla bla-bla-bla-bla **bla-bla
{{)foo! ~~foo121 foo--foo?. foo-foo?!{. @foo-foo! f 23 foo2 f-ff-fff-ffff!.,?  **foo-f