Regular Expressions 101

Save & Share

  • Regex Version: ver. 3
  • Fork Regex
    ctrl+s
  • Add to Community Library

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

/
/
gu

Test String

Code Generator

Language

Generated Code

import Foundation // WARNING: You included a flag that Swift doesn't support: u // When this flag is set, it makes the pattern and subject strings to be treated as unicode. // Swift already treats the pattern and subject strings as unicode by default, so including this flag is redundant. let pattern = #"[\u{1f300}-\u{1f5ff}\u{1f900}-\u{1f9ff}\u{1f600}-\u{1f64f}\u{1f680}-\u{1f6ff}\u{2600}-\u{26ff}\u{2700}-\u{27bf}\u{1f1e6}-\u{1f1ff}\u{1f191}-\u{1f251}\u{1f004}\u{1f0cf}\u{1f170}-\u{1f171}\u{1f17e}-\u{1f17f}\u{1f18e}\u{3030}\u{2b50}\u{2b55}\u{2934}-\u{2935}\u{2b05}-\u{2b07}\u{2b1b}-\u{2b1c}\u{3297}\u{3299}\u{303d}\u{00a9}\u{00ae}\u{2122}\u{23f3}\u{24c2}\u{23e9}-\u{23ef}\u{25b6}\u{23f8}-\u{23fa}]"# let regex = try! NSRegularExpression(pattern: pattern) let testString = #"🌍💰🕧👨👩👧🤔🈂ī¸ 😘 ☃♨ī¸đŸ—ēī¸đŸ“„đŸĨ⚒ī¸đŸŒ€đŸĻđŸˆˇī¸đŸˆĩ🆚🀄⭐ī¸â¤ī¸âžĄī¸âž°ī¸â¤´ī¸âžŋī¸â­•ī¸ãŠ™ī¸đŸ€„đŸƒđŸ…ąī¸đŸ†Žã€°ī¸â¤ĩī¸âŦœī¸ã€Ŋī¸â­ī¸đŸ†’⏊ī¸ÂŠī¸â“‚ī¸â˜Ēī¸â˜•ī¸âēī¸â–ļī¸ÂŽī¸â„ĸī¸âŗī¸"# 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