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
No Match

`
`

Test String

Code Generator

Language

Generated Code

import java.util.regex.Matcher; import java.util.regex.Pattern; public class Example { public static void main(String[] args) { final String regex = "\\[[^\\]]*\\]\\s*[^\\[]*\\s*\\[[^\\]]*\\]\\([^\\)]*\\):\\s*"; final String string = "morning lendhu kinda troubles\n" + "thatha wanted me to buy cake for him\n" + "I went and spent 30 mins extra to get cake\n" + "[12:58, 30/03/2023] Bharadwaj Giridhar from [inboxpirates.net](http://inboxpirates.net/): by the time I got home neighbor came so spoke with him for the first time in 10 years\n" + "[12:58, 30/03/2023] Bharadwaj Giridhar from [inboxpirates.net](http://inboxpirates.net/): thatha spit the cake so I felt a lil bad\n" + "[12:59, 30/03/2023] Bharadwaj Giridhar from [inboxpirates.net](http://inboxpirates.net/): nurse told me don't get cake he'll react negatively\n" + "[12:59, 30/03/2023] Bharadwaj Giridhar from [inboxpirates.net](http://inboxpirates.net/): but I got because I felt it was one of his last and small wish\n" + "[12:59, 30/03/2023] Bharadwaj Giridhar from [inboxpirates.net](http://inboxpirates.net/): so I thought I'll go to office and poop\n" + "[12:59, 30/03/2023] Bharadwaj Giridhar from [inboxpirates.net](http://inboxpirates.net/): but it was late so I went upstairs to poop\n" + "[12:59, 30/03/2023] Bharadwaj Giridhar from [inboxpirates.net](http://inboxpirates.net/): adhukkula pati called me 10 times about why I didn't go to office\n" + "[13:00, 30/03/2023] Bharadwaj Giridhar from [inboxpirates.net](http://inboxpirates.net/): got so mad but controlled myself and went to office\n" + "[13:08, 30/03/2023] Bharadwaj Giridhar from [inboxpirates.net](http://inboxpirates.net/): Adhukkula she has called perimma and cried saying he's not taking phone\n" + "[13:08, 30/03/2023] Bharadwaj Giridhar from [inboxpirates.net](http://inboxpirates.net/): Within 6 minutes\n" + "[13:09, 30/03/2023] Bharadwaj Giridhar from [inboxpirates.net](http://inboxpirates.net/): And then I came to office adhukkula a meeting got booked (good news) but I need to hire faster and need to be able to pay them consistently (because I'm afraid of losing clients too)\n" + "[13:09, 30/03/2023] Bharadwaj Giridhar from [inboxpirates.net](http://inboxpirates.net/): And then balaji called and I was like I'm a lil worried about u not working on yourself\n" + "[13:10, 30/03/2023] Bharadwaj Giridhar from [inboxpirates.net](http://inboxpirates.net/): And he started crying saying I can't speak normally to you at all I'm lonely\n" + "[13:10, 30/03/2023] Bharadwaj Giridhar from [inboxpirates.net](http://inboxpirates.net/): Adhulkula phone got switched off\n" + "[13:10, 30/03/2023] Bharadwaj Giridhar from [inboxpirates.net](http://inboxpirates.net/): Now I'm uploading all contacts to CRM to calm down my anxiety and get ready for meetings at 4 and 10:30\n" + "[13:10, 30/03/2023] Bharadwaj Giridhar from [inboxpirates.net](http://inboxpirates.net/): Thideer nu somedays are like this stressful and some days are like super peaceful\n" + "[13:11, 30/03/2023] Bharadwaj Giridhar from [inboxpirates.net](http://inboxpirates.net/): Then the fight with vaishnav also is kinda bothering me but I don't have the time to talk with her"; final Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(regex); final Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(string); if (matcher.find()) { System.out.println("Full match: " + matcher.group(0)); for (int i = 1; i <= matcher.groupCount(); i++) { System.out.println("Group " + i + ": " + matcher.group(i)); } } } }

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 Java, please visit: https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/util/regex/Pattern.html