Regular Expressions 101

Save & Share

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

/
/
gm

Test String

Code Generator

Language

Generated Code

const regex = /<(\s)*([a-z0-9]+)(\s)*([a-zA-z0-9%,;()="'?\.\-:_\[\]&{}\/\s]*)(>|(\s)*\/>)*/gm; // Alternative syntax using RegExp constructor // const regex = new RegExp('<(\\s)*([a-z0-9]+)(\\s)*([a-zA-z0-9%,;()="\'?\\.\\-:_\\[\\]&{}\\\/\\s]*)(>|(\\s)*\\\/>)*', 'gm') const str = `<div class="portal" role="navigation" id='p-tb'> <h3>Toolbox</h3> <div class="body"> <ul> <li id="t-whatlinkshere"><a href="/wiki/Special:WhatLinksHere/Human_trafficking_in_Canada" title="List of all English Wikipedia pages containing links to this page [j]" accesskey="j">What links here</a></li> <li id="t-recentchangeslinked"><a href="/wiki/Special:RecentChangesLinked/Human_trafficking_in_Canada" title="Recent changes in pages linked from this page [k]" accesskey="k">Related changes</a></li> <li id="t-upload"><a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:File_Upload_Wizard" title="Upload files [u]" accesskey="u">Upload file</a></li> <li id="t-specialpages"><a href="/wiki/Special:SpecialPages" title="A list of all special pages [q]" accesskey="q">Special pages</a></li> <li id="t-permalink"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Human_trafficking_in_Canada&amp;oldid=560794473" title="Permanent link to this revision of the page">Permanent link</a></li> <li id="t-info"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Human_trafficking_in_Canada&amp;action=info">Page information</a></li> <li id="t-cite"><a href="/w/index.php?title=Special:Cite&amp;page=Human_trafficking_in_Canada&amp;id=560794473" title="Information on how to cite this page">Cite this page</a></li> </ul> </div> </div>`; // Reset `lastIndex` if this regex is defined globally // regex.lastIndex = 0; let m; while ((m = regex.exec(str)) !== null) { // This is necessary to avoid infinite loops with zero-width matches if (m.index === regex.lastIndex) { regex.lastIndex++; } // The result can be accessed through the `m`-variable. m.forEach((match, groupIndex) => { console.log(`Found match, group ${groupIndex}: ${match}`); }); }

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 JavaScript, please visit: https://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Web/JavaScript/Guide/Regular_Expressions