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
Processing...

Test String

Code Generator

Generated Code

import Foundation let pattern = #"(?P<issuetime>\d+/\w+Z)(?:\s+(?P<layer>\w+/\w+|NOT\s+AVBL)(?:\s+(?P<coordinates>(?:\w\d{4}\s\w\d{5}\s-\s)+\w\d{4}\s\w\d{5}\s))*)?"# let regex = try! NSRegularExpression(pattern: pattern, options: .anchorsMatchLines) let testString = #""" FCST VA CLD +6 HR: 16/1200Z SFC/FL200 N4517 W04623 - N6356 W01924 - N7750 E07729 - N3856 E06031 - N4517 W04623 FL200/350 N4839 W04904 - N7025 E01017 - N7505 E07954 - N6139 E06549 - N4839 W04904 FCST VA CLD +12 HR: 16/1800Z SFC/FL200 N4010 E03817 - N4900 W04529 - N7112 W00641 - N7617 E09941 - N4010 E03817 FL200/350 N4919 W05700 - N7300 E03329 - N7732 E09626 - N5936 E09143 - N4919 W05700 FCST VA CLD +18 HR: 17/0000Z SFC/FL200 N4901 W05420 - N7235 E00056 - N7558 E09708 - N3934 E05131 - N4901 W05420 FL200/350 N4933 W03842 - N5436 W04127 - N7433 E03732 - N7935 E11430 - N6503 E10238 - N4933 W03842 FCST VA CLD +6 HR: 16/1200Z SFC/FL200 N4517 W04623 - N6356 W01924 FCST VA CLD +12 HR: 16/1800Z NOT AVBL FCST VA CLD +18 HR: 17/0000Z NOT AVBL RET """# 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