Regular Expressions 101

Group 1((?!<span style="background-color: #([A-Fa-f0-9]{6}|[A-Fa-f0-9]{3})">|<\/span>)[&<>"'/])

Negative Lookahead(?!<span style="background-color: #([A-Fa-f0-9]{6}|[A-Fa-f0-9]{3})">|<\/span>)

1st Alternative<span style="background-color: #([A-Fa-f0-9]{6}|[A-Fa-f0-9]{3})">

<span style="background-color: #the literal text <span style="background-color: # (case sensitive)

Group 2([A-Fa-f0-9]{6}|[A-Fa-f0-9]{3})

1st Alternative[A-Fa-f0-9]{6}

Character Class[A-Fa-f0-9]{6}

{6}matches exactly 6 characters from the set below:

A-Fone character from A (65₁₀) to F (70₁₀) (case sensitive)

a-fone character from a (97₁₀) to f (102₁₀) (case sensitive)

0-9one character from 0 (48₁₀) to 9 (57₁₀)

2nd Alternative[A-Fa-f0-9]{3}

Character Class[A-Fa-f0-9]{3}

{3}matches exactly 3 characters from the set below:

A-Fone character from A (65₁₀) to F (70₁₀) (case sensitive)

a-fone character from a (97₁₀) to f (102₁₀) (case sensitive)

0-9one character from 0 (48₁₀) to 9 (57₁₀)

">the literal text ">

2nd Alternative<\/span>

<the literal < (60₁₀ / 74₈ / 3C₁₆)

\/the literal / (47₁₀ / 57₈ / 2F₁₆)

span>the literal text span> (case sensitive)

Character Class[&<>"'/]

&the literal & (38₁₀ / 46₈ / 26₁₆)

<the literal < (60₁₀ / 74₈ / 3C₁₆)

>the literal > (62₁₀ / 76₈ / 3E₁₆)

"the literal " (34₁₀ / 42₈ / 22₁₆)

'the literal ' (39₁₀ / 47₈ / 27₁₆)

/the literal / (47₁₀ / 57₈ / 2F₁₆)

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

Detailed match information will be displayed here automatically.

Search reference

Regular Expression

((?!<span style="background-color: #([A-Fa-f0-9]{6}|[A-Fa-f0-9]{3})">|<\/span>)[&<>"'/])

New

<b>some test <span style="background-color: #333300">ol string!</b></span> nope <i>whoops</i> <span style="background-color: #ff0000">meh</span>