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
Processing...

Test String

Code Generator

Generated Code

import re regex = re.compile(r""" (?<=[ \t])-? (?: (?: \d |[1-9]\d+ |[1-9]\d*\.\d{1,3}(?<!0) |\.\d{1,3}(?<!0) )|(?: (\.0*)0 |(0+)\.\d{0,2}[1-9] |(0+)(?:0|[1-9]\d*)\.?\d* |\d+(\.0*) |\d*\.(?:[1-9]|\d[1-9])?(0+) |\d*\.\d{3}(\d+) ) ) (?=[ \t]|$)[ \t]? """, flags=re.VERBOSE | re.MULTILINE) test_str = ("Valid:\n" "* Integers\n" " 0 1 10 123\n" " -0 -1 -10 -123\n" "* Floats <1, without leading zero, (1<=precision<=3)\n" " .1 .01 .001 .12 .123\n" " -.1 -.01 -.001 -.12 -.123\n" "* Floats >1, (1<=precision<=3)\n" " 1.1 1.01 1.001 1.12 1.123 12.1 12.12 12.123 123.1 123.12 123.123\n" " -1.1 -1.01 -1.001 -1.12 -1.123 -12.1 -12.12 -12.123 -123.1 -123.12 -123.123\n\n" "Invalid (in order of capture):\n" "* [1] Zero as float with only trailing zeros\n" " .0 .00 .000\n" " -.0 -.00 -.000\n" "* [2] Floats <1, with leading zero\n" " 0.1 0.01 0.001 0.12 0.123\n" " -0.1 -0.01 -0.001 -0.12 -0.123\n" "* [3] Integers with leading zeros\n" " 00 01 012 0123 000 001 0012 00123 0000 0001 00012 000123\n" " -00 -01 -012 -0123 -000 -001 -0012 -00123 -0000 -0001 -00012 -000123\n" "* [4] Integers as float ('fake floats')\n" " 0. 1. 12. 123.\n" " 0.0 0.00 0.000 0.0000\n" " 1.0 1.00 1.000\n" " -0. -1. -12. -123.\n" " -0.0 -0.00 -0.000 -0.0000\n" " -1.0 -1.00 -1.000\n" "* [5] Floats with trailing zeros\n" " 1.10 1.100 1.120 .10 .100 .120\n" " -1.10 -1.100 -1.120 -.10 -.100 -.120\n" "* [6] Any float with precision >3\n" " 0.0001 0.0012 0.0123 0.1234\n" " 1.0001 1.0012 1.0123 1.1234\n" " 10.0001 10.0012 10.0123 10.1234\n" " 100.0001 100.0012 100.0123 100.1234\n" " -0.0001 -0.0012 -0.0123 -0.1234\n" " -1.0001 -1.0012 -1.0123 -1.1234\n" " -10.0001 -10.0012 -10.0123 -10.1234\n" " -100.0001 -100.0012 -100.0123 -100.1234\n") matches = regex.finditer(test_str) for match_num, match in enumerate(matches, start=1): print(f"Match {match_num} was found at {match.start()}-{match.end()}: {match.group()}") for group_num, group in enumerate(match.groups(), start=1): print(f"Group {group_num} found at {match.start(group_num)}-{match.end(group_num)}: {group}")

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 Python, please visit: https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html