Regular Expressions 101

Save & Share

  • Current Version: 1
  • Update Regex
    ctrl+⇧+s
  • Save new Regex
    ctrl+s
  • Add to Community Library

Flavor

  • PCRE2 (PHP)
  • ECMAScript (JavaScript)
  • Python
  • Golang
  • Java
  • .NET 7.0 (C#)
  • Rust
  • PCRE (Legacy)
  • Regex Flavor Guide

Function

  • Match
  • Substitution
  • List
  • Unit Tests
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
Processing...

Test String

Code Generator

Generated Code

import java.util.regex.Matcher; import java.util.regex.Pattern; public class Example { public static void main(String[] args) { final String regex = "\\b(?:(?:31(\\/|-| |\\.)(?:0?[13578]|1[02]|(?:Jan|January|Mar|March|May|Jul|July|Aug|August|Oct|October|Dec|December)))\\1|(?:(?:29|30)(\\/|-| |\\.)(?:0?[1,3-9]|1[0-2]|(?:Jan|January|Mar|March|Apr|April|May|Jun|June|Jul|July|Aug|August|Sep|September|Oct|October|Nov|November|Dec|December))\\2))(?:(?:1[6-9]|[2-9]\\d)?\\d{2})\\b|\\b(?:29(\\/|-| |\\.)(?:0?2|(?:Feb|February))\\3(?:(?:(?:1[6-9]|[2-9]\\d)?(?:0[48]|[2468][048]|[13579][26])|(?:(?:16|[2468][048]|[3579][26])00))))\\b|\\b(?:0?[1-9]|1\\d|2[0-8])(\\/|-| |\\.)(?:(?:0?[1-9]|(?:Jan|January|Feb|February|Mar|March|Apr|April|May|Jun|June|Jul|July|Aug|August|Sep|September))|(?:1[0-2]|(?:Oct|October|Nov|November|Dec|December)))\\4(?:(?:1[6-9]|[2-9]\\d)?\\d{2})\\b"; final String string = "From 1 March 1960 To 1 March 2235\n\n" + "For a period starting 01/03/1960 and ending 01/03/2235\n\n" + "Starting 1.3.1960 and ending 1.3.2235\n\n" + "For a period starting 1/3/1960 and ending 1/3/2235\n" + "From 1 June 1960 To 1 July 2235\n" + "From 1-June-1960 To 1-July-2235\n\n" + "29-02-2008\n" + "29-Feb-2008\n" + "29-02-2009\n" + "29-Feb-2009\n" + "29/Feb/20\n" + "29-Feb-21\n\n" + "29-10-2008\n" + "31-12-2008\n" + "31-11-2008\n"; final Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(regex, Pattern.MULTILINE); final Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(string); while (matcher.find()) { System.out.println("Full match: " + matcher.group(0)); for (int i = 1; i <= matcher.groupCount(); i++) { System.out.println("Group " + i + ": " + matcher.group(i)); } } } }

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 Java, please visit: https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/util/regex/Pattern.html