Regular Expressions 101

Save & Share

  • Regex Version: ver. 1
  • Update Regex
    ctrl+⇧+s
  • Save new Regex
    ctrl+s
  • Add to Community Library

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
No Match

`
`
mg

Test String

Code Generator

Language

Generated Code

import Foundation let pattern = #"(?=\[\d\d.\d\d.\d\d, \d\d:\d\d\])"# let regex = try! NSRegularExpression(pattern: pattern, options: .anchorsMatchLines) let testString = #"[29.01.18, 23:33] Alice: Ist das hier ein Chatverlauf?\n[29.01.18, 23:45] Bob: Ja ist es!\n[29.01.18, 23:45] Bob: Der ist dazu da die funktionsweise des Parsers zu demonstrieren\n[29.01.18, 23:46] Alice: ‎PTT-20180129-WA0025.opus (Datei angehängt)\n[29.01.18, 23:46] Bob: Ah, er kann also auch erkennen ob Voicemails gesendet wurden!\n[29.01.18, 23:46] Bob: Das ist praktisch!\n[29.01.18, 23:47] Bob: Oder?\n[29.01.18, 23:47] Alice: ja😄\n[29.01.18, 23:47] Alice: und Emojis gehen auch!\n[29.01.18, 23:47] Bob: Was ist mit normalen Smilies?\n[29.01.18, 23:49] Alice: ‎Keine Ahnung, lass uns das doch mal ausprobieren\n[29.01.18, 23:50] Bob: Alles klar :) :D\n[29.01.18, 23:51] Alice: Scheint zu funktionieren!:P\n[29.01.18, 23:51] Bob: Meinst du, dass URLS auch erkannt werden?\n[29.01.18, 23:52] Bob: ‎Schick doch mal eine zum ausprobieren!\n[29.01.18, 23:53] Alice: https://github.com/JuKo007\n[29.01.18, 23:58] Alice: ‎Scheint zu funktionieren!\n[29.01.18, 23:59] Alice: Sehr schön!\n[30.01.18, 00:00] Alice: Damit sollten sich WhatsApp Verläufe besser quantifizieren lassen!\n[30.01.18, 00:02] Bob: ‎Alles klar, los gehts 😌\n"# let stringRange = NSRange(location: 0, length: testString.utf16.count) let matches = regex.matches(in: testString, range: stringRange) var result: [[String]] = [] for match in matches { var groups: [String] = [] for rangeIndex in 1 ..< match.numberOfRanges { let nsRange = match.range(at: rangeIndex) guard !NSEqualRanges(nsRange, NSMakeRange(NSNotFound, 0)) else { continue } let string = (testString as NSString).substring(with: nsRange) groups.append(string) } if !groups.isEmpty { result.append(groups) } } print(result)

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 Swift 5.2, please visit: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/nsregularexpression