Regular Expressions 101

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  • Unit Tests (4)

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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

/
/
gmxJ

Test String

Code Generator

Generated Code

const regex = /^[ ]{0,3} # Leading space up to 3 (?<link_all> (?<!\\)\[ # ID within brackets (?!\^) # Make sure, this is not confused with a footnote (?<link_id>.+?) (?<!\\)\] [ \t]* # Possibly with some space before colon \: [ \t]*\n?[ \t]* # Possibly with some space after the colon, possibly with a new line in between? (?: <(?<link_url>[^\>]+)> # link within <> | (?<link_url>\S+) # or link without <> ) (?: (?: [ \t]+ # Either some space or tabs | [ \t]*\n[ \t]* # or a new line surrounded by 0 or more spaces or tabs ) (?: (?: (?<link_title_container>['"]) # Title is surrounded ether by double or single quotes (?<link_title>.+?) \g{link_title_container} # make the sure enclosing mark balance ) | # or \((?<link_title>[^\)]+)\) # by parenthesis ) )? [ \t]* # Possibly ending with some trailing spaces or tab ) (?:\n+|\Z) # terminated by a new line or end of file/gm; // Alternative syntax using RegExp constructor // const regex = new RegExp('^[ ]{0,3} # Leading space up to 3 (?<link_all> (?<!\\\\)\\[ # ID within brackets (?!\\^) # Make sure, this is not confused with a footnote (?<link_id>.+?) (?<!\\\\)\\] [ \\t]* # Possibly with some space before colon \\: [ \\t]*\\n?[ \\t]* # Possibly with some space after the colon, possibly with a new line in between? (?: <(?<link_url>[^\\>]+)> # link within <> | (?<link_url>\\S+) # or link without <> ) (?: (?: [ \\t]+ # Either some space or tabs | [ \\t]*\\n[ \\t]* # or a new line surrounded by 0 or more spaces or tabs ) (?: (?: (?<link_title_container>[\'"]) # Title is surrounded ether by double or single quotes (?<link_title>.+?) \\g{link_title_container} # make the sure enclosing mark balance ) | # or \\((?<link_title>[^\\)]+)\\) # by parenthesis ) )? [ \\t]* # Possibly ending with some trailing spaces or tab ) (?:\\n+|\\Z) # terminated by a new line or end of file', 'gm') const str = `[1]: /url/ "Title" [refid]: /path/to/something (Title) [^block]: Paragraph. * List item > Blockquote Code block `; // Reset `lastIndex` if this regex is defined globally // regex.lastIndex = 0; let m; while ((m = regex.exec(str)) !== null) { // This is necessary to avoid infinite loops with zero-width matches if (m.index === regex.lastIndex) { regex.lastIndex++; } // The result can be accessed through the `m`-variable. m.forEach((match, groupIndex) => { console.log(`Found match, group ${groupIndex}: ${match}`); }); }

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 JavaScript, please visit: https://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Web/JavaScript/Guide/Regular_Expressions