Regular Expressions 101

1st Alternative^(\s*//.*)(*SKIP)(*F)

^start of line

Group 1(\s*//.*)

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

//the literal text //

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

(*SKIP)acts like (*PRUNE), but the next unanchored match attempt starts where (*SKIP) was reached instead of at the next subject character

(*F)forces the current match attempt to fail at this position

2nd Alternative^(?:\s*Connection\s+)?(.+?)\s*=\s*new\s+DBConnection

^start of line

Non-Capturing Group(?:\s*Connection\s+)?

?repeats the group contents below at most once:

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

Connectionthe literal text Connection (case sensitive)

\s+any whitespace character, repeated at least once

Group 2(.+?)

.+?any character (except for line terminators), repeated at least once

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

=the literal = (61₁₀ / 75₈ / 3D₁₆)

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

newthe literal text new (case sensitive)

\s+any whitespace character, repeated at least once

DBConnectionthe literal text DBConnection (case sensitive)

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

Detailed match information will be displayed here automatically.

Search reference

Regular Expression

^(\s*//.*)(*SKIP)(*F)|^(?:\s*Connection\s+)?(.+?)\s*=\s*new\s+DBConnection

Test String
New

Connection variable = new DBConnection
variable = new DBConnection
//
//Connection variable = new DBConnection
//variable = new DBConnection
//    Connection variable = new DBConnection
//    variable = new DBConnection

Regular Expression

Test StringNew

Test String
New