Regular Expressions 101

Pro

entry the literal text entry (case sensitive)

\d+a digit, repeated at least once

: the literal text :

Non-Capturing Group(?:(?!entry \d+: ).)*

*repeats the group contents below any number of times:

Negative Lookahead(?!entry \d+: )

entry the literal text entry (case sensitive)

\d+a digit, repeated at least once

: the literal text :

.any character

specialthe literal text special (case sensitive)

.*?any character, repeated any number of times

Positive Lookahead(?=\s*entry \d+: |$)

1st Alternative\s*entry \d+:

\s*any whitespace character, repeated any number of times

entry the literal text entry (case sensitive)

\d+a digit, repeated at least once

: the literal text :

2nd Alternative$

$end of string, or before its final line terminator

Global pattern flags

g modifier: global. Finds all matches instead of stopping after the first

s modifier: single line. Allows a dot to match line terminators

Detailed match information will be displayed here automatically.

27 tokens

Regular Expression

entry \d+: (?:(?!entry \d+: ).)*special.*?(?=\s*entry \d+: |$)

New

entry 1: hello
entry 2: world
entry 3: this
is a multiline
that makes it hard
entry 4: here we have a special entry
entry 5: here
we
have 
another special entry
in a multiline
entry 6: end