Regular Expressions 101

Explanation

Pro

\s*any whitespace character, repeated any number of times

Group 1( \[some_element\] ( (?: .* | (?1) )* ) \[/some_element\] )

\[the literal [ (91₁₀ / 133₈ / 5B₁₆)

some_elementthe literal text some_element (case sensitive)

\]the literal ] (93₁₀ / 135₈ / 5D₁₆)

Group 2( (?: .* | (?1) )* )

Non-Capturing Group(?: .* | (?1) )*

*repeats the group contents below any number of times:

1st Alternative .*

.*any character (except for line terminators), repeated any number of times

2nd Alternative (?1)

(?1)calls group 1 as a subroutine

\[the literal [ (91₁₀ / 133₈ / 5B₁₆)

/some_elementthe literal text /some_element (case sensitive)

\]the literal ] (93₁₀ / 135₈ / 5D₁₆)

Global pattern flags

x modifier: extended. Ignores unescaped whitespace and comments outside character classes

Detailed match information will be displayed here automatically.

25 tokens

\s* ( \[some_element\] ( (?: .* | (?1) )* ) \[/some_element\] )

New

[some_element]Random string chars [some_element]Ramdon[/some_element] some more random chars[/some_element]