Regular Expressions 101

Group 1(:\b|\b:)

1st Alternative:\b

:the literal : (58₁₀ / 72₈ / 3A₁₆)

\ban ASCII word boundary

2nd Alternative\b:

\ban ASCII word boundary

:the literal : (58₁₀ / 72₈ / 3A₁₆)

Negative Lookahead(?!(?:(?<=\b\d:)|(?<=\b\d{2}:))\d{1,2}\b)

Non-Capturing Group(?:(?<=\b\d:)|(?<=\b\d{2}:))

1st Alternative(?<=\b\d:)

Positive Lookbehind(?<=\b\d:)

\ban ASCII word boundary

\da digit

:the literal : (58₁₀ / 72₈ / 3A₁₆)

2nd Alternative(?<=\b\d{2}:)

Positive Lookbehind(?<=\b\d{2}:)

\ban ASCII word boundary

\d{2}a digit, repeated exactly 2 times

:the literal : (58₁₀ / 72₈ / 3A₁₆)

\d{1,2}a digit, repeated between 1 and 2 times

\ban ASCII word boundary

Global pattern flags

g modifier: global. Finds all matches instead of stopping after the first

m modifier: multiline. Causes ^ and $ to match the start and end of each line, not only the start and end of the string

Detailed match information will be displayed here automatically.

Search reference

Regular Expression

(:\b|\b:)(?!(?:(?<=\b\d:)|(?<=\b\d{2}:))\d{1,2}\b)

New

A Book: Chapter 1 or A Book :Chapter 1
Do not match if it is part of emoticons i.e :( or ): or :/ or :-) etc
Do not match if it is part of a given time i.e 16:00 etc

Regular Expression

Substitution