Regular Expressions 101

Save & Share

Flavor

  • PCRE2 (PHP >=7.3)
  • PCRE (PHP <7.3)
  • ECMAScript (JavaScript)
  • Python
  • Golang
  • Java 8
  • .NET 7.0 (C#)
  • Rust
  • Regex Flavor Guide

Function

  • Match
  • Substitution
  • List
  • Unit Tests

Tools

Sponsors
There are currently no sponsors. Become a sponsor today!
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

/
/
gm

Test String

Code Generator

Generated Code

import java.util.regex.Matcher; import java.util.regex.Pattern; public class Example { public static void main(String[] args) { final String regex = "^(\\w+)\\s+(\\w+)(\\(\\d*\\))?.*$"; final String string = "userId bigint(20) NO PRI auto_increment\n" + "createDate datetime YES \n" + "modifiedDate datetime YES \n" + "password_ varchar(75) YES \n" + "passwordEncrypted tinyint(4) YES \n" + "passwordModifiedDate datetime YES \n" + "sAMAccountName varchar(255) YES MUL \n" + "screenName varchar(75) YES UNI \n" + "screenNameModifiedDate datetime YES \n" + "emailAddress varchar(75) YES MUL \n" + "firstName varchar(75) YES \n" + "lastName varchar() YES \n" + "lastLoginDate datetime YES \n" + "active_ tinyint(4) YES MUL \n" + "phone varchar(25) YES \n" + "token varchar(75) YES \n" + "tokenValidUntil datetime YES \n" + "deletedAt datetime YES \n" + "deletedByUserId bigint(20) YES \n" + "eightByEightId varchar(100) YES \n" + "fitPushToken varchar(255) YES \n\n\n" + "-- query 2: \n\n\n" + "WORKORDER_NO varchar(32) NO PRI \n" + "WORKORDER_RES_ID varchar(18) NO PRI \n" + "ATTR_ID varchar(60) NO PRI \n" + "ATTR_NAME varchar(40) NO \n" + "ATTR_DISP_NAME varchar(256) YES \n" + "ATTR_VAL varchar(4000) YES \n" + "CONTROL_TYPE char(1) YES \n" + "DATA_SOURCE text YES \n" + "CONTROL_FLAG char(1) YES \n" + "ATTR_FLAG char(1) NO \n" + "DATA_TYPE char(1) YES \n" + "DATA_LEN int(4) YES \n" + "PRECISION int(2) YES \n" + "SCALE int(2) YES \n" + "IS_NULL char(1) YES \n" + "INIT_VALUE varchar(80) YES \n" + "STATE char(1) NO A \n" + "CREATE_USER decimal(9,0) YES \n" + "CREATE_DATE datetime YES \n" + "MODIFY_USER decimal(9,0) YES \n" + "MODIFY_DATE datetime YES "; final Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(regex, Pattern.MULTILINE); final Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(string); while (matcher.find()) { System.out.println("Full match: " + matcher.group(0)); for (int i = 1; i <= matcher.groupCount(); i++) { System.out.println("Group " + i + ": " + matcher.group(i)); } } } }

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 Java, please visit: https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/util/regex/Pattern.html