Regular Expressions 101

Explanation

Pro

Group 1(<a .*?)

<a the literal text <a (case sensitive)

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

Group 2(href="|\')

1st Alternativehref="

href="the literal text href=" (case sensitive)

2nd Alternative\'

\'the literal ' (39₁₀ / 47₈ / 27₁₆)

Group 3(http:\/\/oceanexplorer.noaa.gov\/redirectimage.php\?url=|\/redirectimage.php\?url=|\/redirectimage.php\?url=)

1st Alternativehttp:\/\/oceanexplorer.noaa.gov\/redirectimage.php\?url=

http:the literal text http: (case sensitive)

\/the literal / (47₁₀ / 57₈ / 2F₁₆)

\/the literal / (47₁₀ / 57₈ / 2F₁₆)

oceanexplorerthe literal text oceanexplorer (case sensitive)

.any character (except for line terminators)

noaathe literal text noaa (case sensitive)

.any character (except for line terminators)

govthe literal text gov (case sensitive)

\/the literal / (47₁₀ / 57₈ / 2F₁₆)

redirectimagethe literal text redirectimage (case sensitive)

.any character (except for line terminators)

phpthe literal text php (case sensitive)

\?the literal ? (63₁₀ / 77₈ / 3F₁₆)

url=the literal text url= (case sensitive)

2nd Alternative\/redirectimage.php\?url=

\/the literal / (47₁₀ / 57₈ / 2F₁₆)

redirectimagethe literal text redirectimage (case sensitive)

.any character (except for line terminators)

phpthe literal text php (case sensitive)

\?the literal ? (63₁₀ / 77₈ / 3F₁₆)

url=the literal text url= (case sensitive)

3rd Alternative\/redirectimage.php\?url=

\/the literal / (47₁₀ / 57₈ / 2F₁₆)

redirectimagethe literal text redirectimage (case sensitive)

.any character (except for line terminators)

phpthe literal text php (case sensitive)

\?the literal ? (63₁₀ / 77₈ / 3F₁₆)

url=the literal text url= (case sensitive)

Group 4([.\s\S]*?)

Character Class[.\s\S]*?

*?matches any number of characters from the set below:

.the literal . (46₁₀ / 56₈ / 2E₁₆)

\sany whitespace character

\Sany non-whitespace character

Group 5(<\/a>)

<the literal < (60₁₀ / 74₈ / 3C₁₆)

\/the literal / (47₁₀ / 57₈ / 2F₁₆)

a>the literal text a> (case sensitive)

Global pattern flags

g modifier: global. Finds all matches instead of stopping after the first

Match Information

Detailed match information will be displayed here automatically.

Quick Reference

25 tokens

Regular Expression

(<a .*?)(href="|\')(http:\/\/oceanexplorer.noaa.gov\/redirectimage.php\?url=|\/redirectimage.php\?url=|\/redirectimage.php\?url=)([.\s\S]*?)(<\/a>)

New

g_ImageTable[g_imax++] = new Array ("gallery/600/1.jpg", "The inflatable baby pool used for the phytoplankton experiment. <em>Image courtesy of 2009 RUSALCA Expedition, RAS-NOAA.</em><br /><br /><!--strong><a href='/redirectimage.php?url=http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/09bioluminescence/background/hires/bamboo_coral_hires.jpg' title='Download high-resolution image' target='window_name'>Download high-resolution image (jpg, 547 KB)</a></strong-->");

Extraction

g_ImageTable[g_imax++] = new Array ("gallery/600/1.jpg", "The inflatable baby pool used for the phytoplankton experiment. <em>Image courtesy of 2009 RUSALCA Expedition, RAS-NOAA.</em><br /><br /><!--strong><a href='/redirectimage.php?url=http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/09bioluminescence/background/hires/bamboo_coral_hires.jpg' title='Download high-resolution image' target='window_name'>Download high-resolution image (jpg, 547 KB)</a></strong-->");