Regular Expressions 101

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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

/
/
m

Test String

Code Generator

Generated Code

import Foundation let pattern = #"^\/\*-{78}\n(?<title> {4}.+?: .+\n)?[\n \t]+(?<desc>^ {4}(?:.+|\n)+?\n)?[\n \t]+(?<remarks>^ {4}(?:.+|\n)+?\n)?[\n \t]+(?<cols>^ {4}Columns:(?:.+|\n)+?\n)?[\n \t]+(?<cons>^ {4}Constraints:(?:.+|\n)+?\n)?[\n \t]+(?<tags>^ {4}Tags:(?:.+|\n)+?)?^\*\/ *\n"# let regex = try! NSRegularExpression(pattern: pattern, options: .anchorsMatchLines) let testString = #""" /*------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Table: ext.tenant Highest division in the database, used to separate platform clients. And this is the other part. These are the remarks. Tha can span many many lines. With beautiful explanations. And many other comments. Columns: MTLP isenabled - [ ] True if marked as enabled. Used arbitrarily by businesss logic. isdefault - [ ] True if the default entity within its context (only one allowed per system). code - [ ] Short code representing the entity {unique, max 10 chars}. name - [ ] Short name of the entity {unique, max 100 chars}. notes - [ ] Optional notes with a longer description of the entity. mailtransport - [ ] Mail transport used by this tenant for sending emails (smtp, ses). Constraints: country_uk_iso3 - @omit country_uk_isonumeric - @omit country_uk_country - @omit Tags: Tenancy - [ ] local [ ] shared [x] global Association - [x] root [ ] aggreg. [ ] composed Identity - [x] normal [ ] extension [ ] assoc. Scale - [x] small [ ] medium [ ] large [ ] huge Mutability - [ ] nerver [x] low [ ] medium [ ] high */ CREATE TABLE ext.tenant ( id UUID NOT NULL DEFAULT uuid_generate_v4(), createdon TIMESTAMPTZ NOT NULL DEFAULT now(), updatedon TIMESTAMPTZ NOT NULL DEFAULT now(), -- Properties isenabled BOOLEAN NOT NULL DEFAULT TRUE, isdefault BOOLEAN NOT NULL DEFAULT FALSE, code TEXT NOT NULL, name TEXT NOT NULL, notes TEXT, mailtransport TEXT NOT NULL DEFAULT 'smtp', -- Constraints CONSTRAINT tenant_pk PRIMARY KEY (id), CONSTRAINT tenant_uk_code UNIQUE (code) DEFERRABLE INITIALLY IMMEDIATE, CONSTRAINT tenant_uk_name UNIQUE (name) DEFERRABLE INITIALLY IMMEDIATE, CONSTRAINT tenant_ck_updatedon CHECK (updatedon >= createdon), CONSTRAINT tenant_ck_code CHECK (char_length(code) < 20), CONSTRAINT tenant_ck_name CHECK (char_length(name) < 100), CONSTRAINT tenant_ck_mailtransport CHECK (mailtransport = ANY (ARRAY['smtp','ses'])) ); """# let stringRange = NSRange(location: 0, length: testString.utf16.count) if let firstMatch = regex.firstMatch(in: testString, range: stringRange) { let result: [String] = (1 ..< firstMatch.numberOfRanges).map { (testString as NSString).substring(with: firstMatch.range(at: $0)) } print(result) } else { print("No matches were found.") }

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