Regular Expressions 101

\ba Unicode word boundary

Non-Capturing Group(?:(?:[a-f\d]{2})(?:[:-]|)){6}

{6}repeats the group contents below exactly 6 times:

Non-Capturing Group(?:[a-f\d]{2})

Character Class[a-f\d]{2}

{2}matches exactly 2 characters from the set below:

a-fone character from a (97₁₀) to f (102₁₀) (case insensitive)

\da Unicode decimal digit

Non-Capturing Group(?:[:-]|)

1st Alternative[:-]

Character Class[:-]

:the literal : (58₁₀ / 72₈ / 3A₁₆)

-the literal - (45₁₀ / 55₈ / 2D₁₆)

2nd Alternative — matches an empty string

\ba Unicode word boundary

Global pattern flags

i modifier: insensitive. Matches without distinguishing uppercase and lowercase letters

g modifier: global. Finds all matches instead of stopping after the first

Detailed match information will be displayed here automatically.

Search reference

Regular Expression

\b(?:(?:[a-f\d]{2})(?:[:-]|)){6}\b

New

This is an example of a MAC address, for example 8C:C1:21:A2:44:A3 being embedded in a text...

DE-AD-BE-EF-00-02
12:34:56:78:9A:BC
AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF
DE:AD:BE:EF:00:01

Regular Expression

Extraction