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

r"
"
gm

Test String

Code Generator

Language

Generated Code

use strict; my $str = 'Z4WEH10E63-5X/4KEG24N9ETK4QMAG24 Z4WEH10E68-5X/4KEG24N9ETK4 Z4WEH10E63-5X/4KEG24N9ETK4 Z4WEH10E51-5X/4KEG24N9ETK4 Z4WEH10D24-5X/4KEG24N9ETK4 Z4WEH10X181-5X/4KEG24ETK4 Z4WEH10X183-5X/4KEG24ETK4 Z4WEH10E63-5X/4KEG205ETK4QMAG24 Z4WEH10E63-5X/4KEG24ETK4QMBG24 Z4WEH10E51-5X/4KEG24N9ETK4/V Z4WEH10E63-5X/4KEG24N9ETK4QMBG24 Z4WEH10E63-5X/4KEG24ETK4QMBG24SO30 Z4WEH10E63-5X/4KEG205N9ETK4 Z4WEH10E68-5X/4KEG24N9ETK4QMAG24 Z4WEH10E68-5X/4KEG24N9ETK4QMBG24 Z4WEH10E63-5X/4KEG24ETK4QMAG24 Z4WEH10E63-5X/4KEG96ETK4QMBG24 Z4WEH10E63-5X/4KEG24N9ETK4QMBG24/V Z4WEH10E63-5X/4KEG96N9ETK4 Z4WEH10X181-5X/4KEG24ETK4QMBG24 Z4WEH10E63-5X/4KEG96N9ETK4/V Z4WEH10E63-5X/4KEG24N9ETK4QMAG24/V Z4WEH10E63-5X/4KEG24N9ETK4/V Z4WEH10E63-5X/4KEG24ETK4 Z4WEH10E68-5X/4KEG24ETK4QMBG24 Z4WEH10E63-5X/4KEG205ETK4QMBG24 Z4WEH10E63-5X/4KEG24ETK4QLBG24 Z4WEH10E68-5X/4KEG24N9ETK4/V Z4WEH10E68-5X/4KEG24ETK4QMAG24 Z4WEH10E63-5X=4KEG205N9ETK4 Z4WEH10E51-5X/4KEG24ETK4QMBG24 Z4WEH10E68-5X/4KEG96N9ETK4 Z4WEH10D24-5X/4KEG24ETK4 Z4WEH10E63-5X/4KEG205N9ETK4QMBG24/V Z4WEH10E63-5X/4KEG96N9ETK4QMBG24 Z4WEH10E63-5X/4KEG96N9ETK4QMBG24/V Z4WEH10D24-5X/4KEG24ETK4/V Z4WEH10X183-5X/4KEG24N9ETK4 Z4WEH10E51-5X/4KEG24ETK4SO30 Z4WEH10X183-5X/4KEG24ETK4QMBG24 Z4WEH10E63-5X/4KEG24ETK4QMBG24/V Z4WEH10E51-5X/4KEG24N9ETK4QMBG24 '; my $regex = qr/^(?P<mounting_type>Z)(?P<number_of_positions>4)(?P<unit_type>W)(?P<actuation_type>EH)(?P<unit_size>10)(?P<spool_symbol>X181|X183|D24|E68|E63|E51)(?P<sep_1>-)(?P<unit_series>5X)(?P<sep_2>/|=)(?P<pilot_valve>4K)(?P<type_of_solenoid>E)(?P<solenoid_in_ac_or_dc_version>G)(?P<voltage_of_solenoid>205|96|24|)(?P<manual_override_unit>N9|)(?P<control_volume_flow>ET)(?P<electrical_connection>K4)(?P<type_of_limit_switch>QM|)(?P<monitored_limit_switch_position>AB|A|B|)(?P<power_supply_of_limit_switch>G24|)(?P<sep_3>/|)(?P<seal_material>V|)(?P<additional_details>(.|[0-9])*)$ /mp; if ( $str =~ /$regex/g ) { print "Whole match is ${^MATCH} and its start/end positions can be obtained via \$-[0] and \$+[0]\n"; # print "Capture Group 1 is $1 and its start/end positions can be obtained via \$-[1] and \$+[1]\n"; # print "Capture Group 2 is $2 ... and so on\n"; } # ${^POSTMATCH} and ${^PREMATCH} are also available with the use of '/p' # Named capture groups can be called via $+{name}

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 Perl, please visit: http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html