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

/
/
gm

Test String

Code Generator

Language

Generated Code

import Foundation let pattern = #"^\s*((((([0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4})|\*):){7}((([0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4})|\*)|:))|(((([0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4})|\*):){6}(:(([0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4})|\*)|((25[0-5]|2[0-4]\d|1\d\d|[1-9]?\d)(\.(25[0-5]|2[0-4]\d|1\d\d|[1-9]?\d)){3})|:))|(((([0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4})|\*):){5}(((:(([0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4})|\*)){1,2})|:((25[0-5]|2[0-4]\d|1\d\d|[1-9]?\d)(\.(25[0-5]|2[0-4]\d|1\d\d|[1-9]?\d)){3})|:))|(((([0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4})|\*):){4}(((:(([0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4})|\*)){1,3})|((:(([0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4})|\*))?:((25[0-5]|2[0-4]\d|1\d\d|[1-9]?\d)(\.(25[0-5]|2[0-4]\d|1\d\d|[1-9]?\d)){3}))|:))|(((([0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4})|\*):){3}(((:(([0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4})|\*)){1,4})|((:(([0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4})|\*)){0,2}:((25[0-5]|2[0-4]\d|1\d\d|[1-9]?\d)(\.(25[0-5]|2[0-4]\d|1\d\d|[1-9]?\d)){3}))|:))|(((([0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4})|\*):){2}(((:(([0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4})|\*)){1,5})|((:(([0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4})|\*)){0,3}:((25[0-5]|2[0-4]\d|1\d\d|[1-9]?\d)(\.(25[0-5]|2[0-4]\d|1\d\d|[1-9]?\d)){3}))|:))|(((([0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4})|\*):){1}(((:(([0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4})|\*)){1,6})|((:(([0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4})|\*)){0,4}:((25[0-5]|2[0-4]\d|1\d\d|[1-9]?\d)(\.(25[0-5]|2[0-4]\d|1\d\d|[1-9]?\d)){3}))|:))|(:(((:(([0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4})|\*)){1,7})|((:(([0-9A-Fa-f]{1,4})|\*)){0,5}:((25[0-5]|2[0-4]\d|1\d\d|[1-9]?\d)(\.(25[0-5]|2[0-4]\d|1\d\d|[1-9]?\d)){3}))|:)))\s*$"# let regex = try! NSRegularExpression(pattern: pattern, options: .anchorsMatchLines) let testString = #""" 2404:6800:4003:c02::8a 2404:6800:4003:804::200e 2001:4998:c:a06::2:4008 fe80::21d8:f50:c295:c4be 2001:cdba::e:9652 2001:cdba:0:0:0:0:3257:9652 2001:cdba::3257:9652 2001:cdba::1222 21DA:D3:0:2F3B:2AA:FF:FE28:9C5A 2001:cdba::1:2:3:3257:9652 2404::4003:804::200e 1234:Fd2:2:1:89::4500 1234:Fd2:12:1:89::4500 2001:DB8:0:0:0:0:0:* 2001:DB8:0:0:0:*:*:* 2001:DB8::0:* 2001:DB8:0:0:0:*:0:1 :: 2001:DB8:0:0:0:* 2001:*:1 * """# let stringRange = NSRange(location: 0, length: testString.utf16.count) let matches = regex.matches(in: testString, range: stringRange) var result: [[String]] = [] for match in matches { var groups: [String] = [] for rangeIndex in 1 ..< match.numberOfRanges { let nsRange = match.range(at: rangeIndex) guard !NSEqualRanges(nsRange, NSMakeRange(NSNotFound, 0)) else { continue } let string = (testString as NSString).substring(with: nsRange) groups.append(string) } if !groups.isEmpty { result.append(groups) } } print(result)

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 Swift 5.2, please visit: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/nsregularexpression