Regular Expressions 101

Explanation

Pro

^start of line

Negative Lookahead(?![\x20\x27\x2D]|.*?[\p{Lu}]{2}|.*?[\x20]{2}|.*?[\x27]{2}|.*?[\x2D]{2}|.*?(\x20\x2D|\x2D\x20)|.*?(\x27\x2D|\x2D\x27)|.*?(\x27[\w]+\x27(\x20|$)))

1st Alternative[\x20\x27\x2D]

Character Class[\x20\x27\x2D]

\x20the literal (20₁₆ / 40₈ / 32₁₀)

\x27the literal ' (27₁₆ / 47₈ / 39₁₀)

\x2Dthe literal - (2D₁₆ / 55₈ / 45₁₀)

2nd Alternative.*?[\p{Lu}]{2}

.*?any character (except for line terminators), repeated any number of times

Character Class[\p{Lu}]{2}

{2}matches exactly 2 characters from the set below:

\p{Lu}an uppercase letter

3rd Alternative.*?[\x20]{2}

.*?any character (except for line terminators), repeated any number of times

Character Class[\x20]{2}

{2}matches exactly 2 characters from the set below:

\x20the literal (20₁₆ / 40₈ / 32₁₀)

4th Alternative.*?[\x27]{2}

.*?any character (except for line terminators), repeated any number of times

Character Class[\x27]{2}

{2}matches exactly 2 characters from the set below:

\x27the literal ' (27₁₆ / 47₈ / 39₁₀)

5th Alternative.*?[\x2D]{2}

.*?any character (except for line terminators), repeated any number of times

Character Class[\x2D]{2}

{2}matches exactly 2 characters from the set below:

\x2Dthe literal - (2D₁₆ / 55₈ / 45₁₀)

6th Alternative.*?(\x20\x2D|\x2D\x20)

.*?any character (except for line terminators), repeated any number of times

Group 1(\x20\x2D|\x2D\x20)

1st Alternative\x20\x2D

\x20the literal (20₁₆ / 40₈ / 32₁₀)

\x2Dthe literal - (2D₁₆ / 55₈ / 45₁₀)

2nd Alternative\x2D\x20

\x2Dthe literal - (2D₁₆ / 55₈ / 45₁₀)

\x20the literal (20₁₆ / 40₈ / 32₁₀)

7th Alternative.*?(\x27\x2D|\x2D\x27)

.*?any character (except for line terminators), repeated any number of times

Group 2(\x27\x2D|\x2D\x27)

1st Alternative\x27\x2D

\x27the literal ' (27₁₆ / 47₈ / 39₁₀)

\x2Dthe literal - (2D₁₆ / 55₈ / 45₁₀)

2nd Alternative\x2D\x27

\x2Dthe literal - (2D₁₆ / 55₈ / 45₁₀)

\x27the literal ' (27₁₆ / 47₈ / 39₁₀)

8th Alternative.*?(\x27[\w]+\x27(\x20|$))

.*?any character (except for line terminators), repeated any number of times

Group 3(\x27[\w]+\x27(\x20|$))

\x27the literal ' (27₁₆ / 47₈ / 39₁₀)

Character Class[\w]+

+matches at least one character from the set below:

\wany word character

\x27the literal ' (27₁₆ / 47₈ / 39₁₀)

Group 4(\x20|$)

1st Alternative\x20

\x20the literal (20₁₆ / 40₈ / 32₁₀)

2nd Alternative$

$end of line

Character Class[\p{L}\x20\x27\x2D]+

$end of line

Negative Lookbehind(?<![\x20\x2D])

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

Match Information

Detailed match information will be displayed here automatically.

Quick Reference

25 tokens

Regular Expression

^(?![\x20\x27\x2D]|.*?[\p{Lu}]{2}|.*?[\x20]{2}|.*?[\x27]{2}|.*?[\x2D]{2}|.*?(\x20\x2D|\x2D\x20)|.*?(\x27\x2D|\x2D\x27)|.*?(\x27[\w]+\x27(\x20|$)))[\p{L}\x20\x27\x2D]+$(?<![\x20\x2D])

New

Jean-Claude Van Damme
Marcin Różalski
MICKEY MOUSE
Jesus Christ
Arnold 'Terminator' Schwarzenegger
Shaquille O'Neal

Extraction

Jean-Claude Van Damme
Marcin Różalski
MICKEY MOUSE
Jesus Christ
Arnold 'Terminator' Schwarzenegger
Shaquille O'Neal