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
No Match

/
/
gmi

Test String

Substitution

Processing...

Code Generator

Language

Generated Code

import Foundation let pattern = #"(1 chron(?:\.|)|1 chronicles|1 cor(?:\.|)|1 corinthians|1 john|1 kings|1 pet(?:\.|)|1 peter|1 sam(?:\.|)|1 samuel|1 thess(?:\.|)|1 thessalonians|1 tim(?:\.|)|1 timothy|2 chron(?:\.|)|2 chronicles|2 cor(?:\.|)|2 corinthians|2 john|2 kings|2 pet(?:\.|)|2 peter|2 sam(?:\.|)|2 samuel|2 thess(?:\.|)|2 thessalonians|2 tim(?:\.|)|2 timothy|3 john|acts|amos|col(?:\.|)|colossians|dan(?:\.|)|daniel|deut(?:\.|)|deuteronomy|eccles(?:\.|)|ecclesiastes|eph(?:\.|)|ephesians|est(?:\.|)|esther|ex(?:\.|)|exodus|ezek(?:\.|)|ezekiel|ezra|gal(?:\.|)|galatians|gen(?:\.|)|genesis|hab(?:\.|)|habakkuk|hag(?:\.|)|haggai|heb(?:\.|)|hebrews|hos(?:\.|)|hosea|isa(?:\.|)|isaiah|james|jer(?:\.|)|jeremiah|job|joel|john|jonah|josh(?:\.|)|joshua|jude|judg(?:\.|)|judges|lam(?:\.|)|lamentations|lev(?:\.|)|leviticus|luke|mal(?:\.|)|malachi|mark|matt(?:\.|)|matthew|mic(?:\.|)|micah|nah(?:\.|)|nahum|neh(?:\.|)|nehemiah|num(?:\.|)|numbers|obad(?:\.|)|obadiah|phil(?:\.|)|philem(?:\.|)|philemon|philippians|prov(?:\.|)|proverbs|ps(?:\.|)|psalms|rev(?:\.|)|revelation|revalations|rom(?:\.|)|romans|ruth|song|song of solomon|titus|zech(?:\.|)|zechariah|zeph(?:\.|)|zephaniah) [1-9]*(:[1-9]*|-[1-9]*|:[1-9]*-[1-9]*|)"# let regex = try! NSRegularExpression(pattern: pattern, options: [.anchorsMatchLines, .caseInsensitive]) let testString = #"Blah blah, Gen. 1:28. Blah blah blah, revalations 6:2-5. Blah blah blah, Luke 2:3. Blah blah, Gen 1:28 again hos 1-2"# let stringRange = NSRange(location: 0, length: testString.utf16.count) let substitutionString = #""# let result = regex.stringByReplacingMatches(in: testString, range: stringRange, withTemplate: substitutionString) print(result)

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 Swift 5.2, please visit: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/nsregularexpression