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

# coding=utf8 # the above tag defines encoding for this document and is for Python 2.x compatibility import re regex = r"http:\/\/.*?\.pdf" test_str = ("omberg. Retrieved September 3, 2010.\n" "Jump up ^ Bloomberg August 4, 2010 article.\n" "Jump up ^ Lauerman, John (April 2, 2014). \"Apollo Falls as Education Department Demands Records\". Bloomberg News. Retrieved May 1, 2014.\n" "Jump up ^ \"Why Recent Criticism of the University of Phoenix is Unjustified, Rhonda P. Urban, Ementor, ezine by Warsaw School of Economics\". E-mentor.edu.pl. Retrieved September 3, 2010.\n" "Jump up ^ \"University of Phoenix 2007 Fact Book\". Phoenix.edu. Retrieved September 3, 2010.\n" "Jump up ^ \"U. of Phoenix Says Test Scores Vindicate Its Academic Model, Chronicle of Higher Education, BLUMENSTYK June 13, 2008\" (PDF). Upxnewsroom.com. Retrieved September 3, 2010.\n" "Jump up ^ \"University of Phoenix Ranks #1 in Graduating Master's Degree Students from Underrepresented Populations, Hispanic PR Wire\". Hispanicprwire.com. July 18, 2007. Retrieved September 3, 2010.\n" "Jump up ^ Nealy, Michael (August 20, 2009). \"Pride and Peril: Historically Black Colleges and Universities\". Diverse – Issues in Higher Education. Retrieved September 25, 2009.\n" "Jump up ^ Jennifer H. Svan. \"DOD renews contracts with four schools, drops University of Phoenix – News\". Stripes. Retrieved October 5, 2013.\n" "Jump up ^ University of Phoenix Faculty Overview. Retrieved February 17, 2008.\n" "Jump up ^ \"Supporting E-Learning at the University of Phoenix\" (PDF). Retrieved September 3, 2010.\n" "^ Jump up to: a b \"Faculty\". phoenix.edu.\n" "Jump up ^ \"Search Results\". Adjunct Project.\n" "Jump up ^ \"Howard Schmidt, Cybersecurity 'Czar': Who Is He?\". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved December 29, 2009.\n" "Jump up ^ Adams, Marilyn (February 5, 2008). \"Events, Drive Keep DOT Chief in the Spotlight\". USA Today. Retrieved September 3, 2010.http://somethink.pdf\n" "Jump up ^ \"Brad L. Dee\". Utah House of Representatives. Retrieved December 15, 2010.\n" "Jump up ^ United States Navy Biography U.S. Navy Web Site. Retrieved March 13, 2008.\n" "Jump up ^ \"Mayor Bill White Announces Police Chief Nominee\". City of Houston. February 27, http://RetrievedDecember.pdf 15, 2010.\n" "Jump up ^ \"Christina Brown\". MSNBC. 2010. Retrieved December 15, 2010.\n" "Jump up ^ The Big Executive? Shaq masters MBA MSNBC Web Site. Retrieved February 12, 2008.\n" "Jump up ^ Los Angeles Sparks Lisa Leslie Receives her Masters at University of Phoenix WireImage Website. Retrieved March 20, 2009.\n" "Jump up ^ \"Michael Russell completes undergrad program from University of Phoenix\". Tennisworldusa.org. January 15, 2012. Retrieved November 11, 2013.") matches = re.search(regex, test_str) if matches: print ("Match was found at {start}-{end}: {match}".format(start = matches.start(), end = matches.end(), match = matches.group())) for groupNum in range(0, len(matches.groups())): groupNum = groupNum + 1 print ("Group {groupNum} found at {start}-{end}: {group}".format(groupNum = groupNum, start = matches.start(groupNum), end = matches.end(groupNum), group = matches.group(groupNum))) # Note: for Python 2.7 compatibility, use ur"" to prefix the regex and u"" to prefix the test string and substitution.

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 Python, please visit: https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html