Regular Expressions 101

Save & Share

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

r"
"
gm

Test String

Code Generator

Language

Generated Code

use strict; my $str = 'Z1S6E05-4X/V Z1S6E30-4X/V Z1S6E50-4X/V Z1S6F05-4X/V Z1S6F30-4X/V Z1S6F50-4X/V Z1S6P05-4X/V Z1S6P30-4X/V Z1S6P50-4X/V Z1S6T05-4X/V Z1S6T30-4X/V Z1S6T50-4X/V Z1S6A05-4X/V Z1S6A30-4X/V Z1S6A50-4X/V Z1S6B05-4X/V Z1S6B30-4X/V Z1S6B50-4X/V Z1S6C05-4X/V Z1S6C30-4X/V Z1S6C50-4X/V Z1S6D05-4X/V Z1S6D30-4X/V Z1S6D50-4X/V Z1S6C05-4X/VSO119 Z1S6P05-4X/VSO104 Z1S6P05-4X/VSO68 Z1S6P05-4X/VSO90 Z1S6P30-4X/VSO104 Z1S6P30-4X/VSO68 Z1S6P30-4X/VSO90 Z1S6T05-4X=V Z1S6P15-4X/V Z1S6P05-4X/V/62 Z1S6T15-4X/V Z1S6AB-P05-4X/V Z1S6T30-4X/N Z1S6P05-4X/N Z1S6E15-4X/V Z1S6F05-4X=V Z1S6C05-4X/N Z1S6C30-4X/VSO68 Z1S6C05-4X/VSO68 Z1S6A15-4X/V Z1S6C15-4X/V Z1S6D15-4X/V Z1S6D05-4X/N Z1S6D05-4X=V Z1S6B15-4X/V Z1S6F15-4X/V Z1S6T05-4X/N Z1S6T15-4X/VSO68 Z1S6A15-4X/V/62SO68 Z1S6E05-4X/N Z1S6T05-4X/VSO90 Z1S6T05-4X/VSO68 Z1S6P30-4X/N Z1S6F50-4X/VJ3 Z1S6B05-4X/N Z1S6F05-4X/N Z1S6T50-4X/N Z1S6C15-4X/N Z1S6D15-4X=V Z1S6D30-4X/N Z1S6C05-4X/NSO68 Z1S6P05-4X/MTSO68 Z1S6D05-4X/VJ3 Z1S6T50-4X=V Z1S6A05-4X=V Z1S6B15-4X/N Z1S6E15-4X/N Z1S6D30-4X=V Z1S6P15-4X/VSO104 Z1S6T15-4X/N Z1S6T30-4X/VSO90 Z1S6A15-4X/VJ3 '; my $regex = qr/^(?P<mounting_type>Z)(?P<number_of_function>1)(?P<unit_type>S)(?P<unit_size>6)(?P<function_in_port>AB-P|B-A|T-P|A|B|C|D|E|F|P|T)(?P<cracking_pressure>05|15|30|50)(?P<sep_1>-)(?P<unit_series>4X)(?P<sep_2>/|=)(?P<seal_material>V|N|MT)(?P<surface_coating>J3|)(?P<pipe_port>/60|/62|)(?P<special_version>SO68|SO90|SO104|)(?P<additional_details>(.|[0-9])*)$ /mp; if ( $str =~ /$regex/g ) { print "Whole match is ${^MATCH} and its start/end positions can be obtained via \$-[0] and \$+[0]\n"; # print "Capture Group 1 is $1 and its start/end positions can be obtained via \$-[1] and \$+[1]\n"; # print "Capture Group 2 is $2 ... and so on\n"; } # ${^POSTMATCH} and ${^PREMATCH} are also available with the use of '/p' # Named capture groups can be called via $+{name}

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 Perl, please visit: http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html