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

/
/
gimx

Test String

Code Generator

Generated Code

import java.util.regex.Matcher; import java.util.regex.Pattern; public class Example { public static void main(String[] args) { final String regex = "# Host entry:\n" + "# Start of line followed by optional horizontal spaces,\n" + "# The word \"Host\" case-insensitive, followed by anything (captured) and a new line.\n" + "^[\\t  ]*host[\\t  ]+(.+?)[\\t  ]*\\n\n" + "# A configuration line or comment, multiple times:\n" + "(?:\n" + " # Negative lookahead to avoid matching a new \"Host\" entry, but\n" + " # also with optional comment lines before it.\n" + " (?!(?:^[\\t  ]*\\#.*\\n)*[\\t  ]*host\\b)\n" + " # Optional horizontal spaces.\n" + " [\\t  ]*\n" + " # Config line, comment or empty line (done with the ? at the end).\n" + " (?:\n" + " # A) A config line, capturing it (with space or equal sign).\n" + " (\\w+)\\b(?:[\\t  ]*=[\\t  ]*|[\\t  ]+)(.*) |\n" + " # B) Or a comment.\n" + " \\#.*\n" + " )?\n" + " # New line or end of the config file.\n" + " (?:\\n|\\Z)\n" + ")+"; final String string = "Host test \n" + " Hostname test.domain.com\n" + " User james\n" + " Port 22\n" + " # Comment\n" + " IdentityFile ~/.ssh/key.pub\n\n" + "# With 2 aliases\n" + "Host test2 test-2\n" + " Hostname test2.domain.com\n" + " User = james\n" + " Port=22\n" + " # Port 23\n" + " IdentityFile = ~/.ssh/key2.pub\n\n" + "# For all hosts except test2, activate compression and set log level:\n" + "Host * !test2\n" + " Compression yes\n" + " LogLevel INFO\n\n" + " IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa\n\n" + "Host *.sweet.home\n" + " Hostname 192.168.2.17\n" + " User tom\n" + " IdentityFile \"~/.ssh/id tom.pub\" # If has spaces, then quote it.\n\n" + "# With a lot of spaces between lines\n" + "Host localhost\n\n" + " Hostname 127.0.0.*\n\n" + " IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa\n\n" + "# Without empty lines between Host definitions:\n" + "Host dummy\n" + " Hostname ssh.dummy.com\n" + " User user\n" + "Host dummy2\n" + " Hostname ssh.dummy2.com\n" + " User user"; final Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(regex, Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE | Pattern.MULTILINE | Pattern.COMMENTS); final Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(string); while (matcher.find()) { System.out.println("Full match: " + matcher.group(0)); for (int i = 1; i <= matcher.groupCount(); i++) { System.out.println("Group " + i + ": " + matcher.group(i)); } } } }

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 Java, please visit: https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/util/regex/Pattern.html