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
Processing...

Test String

Code Generator

Language

Generated Code

use strict; my $str = '{@spell wall of force} <- \\(?\\{@\\w+\\s+(\\w+\\s+\\w+\\s+\\w+)\\}\\)? ({@damage 2d8} <- \\(?\\{@\\w+\\s+(\\d+d\\d+)\\}\\)? {@condition unconscious} <- \\(?\\{@\\w+\\s+(\\w+)\\}\\)? {@creature Bestial Spirit|TCE} <- \\(?\\{@\\w+\\s+(\\w+\\s\\w+)\\|\\w+\\}\\)? {@scaledamage 1d8|3,5,7,9|1d8} <- \\(?\\{@\\w+\\s(\\w+)\\|.......\\|\\w+\\}\\)? {@dice 1d10 × 1d10} <- \\(?\\{@\\w+\\s(\\w+\\s×\\s\\w+)\\}\\)? {@scaledamage 2d8|1-9|1d8} <- \\(?\\{@\\w+\\s(\\w+)\\|\\d+-\\d+\\|\\w+\\}\\)? {@dice 1d4 + 1} <- \\(?\\{@\\w+\\s(\\w+\\s\\+\\s\\d+)\\}\\)? {@dice 1d4 - 1} <- \\(?\\{@\\w+\\s(\\w+\\s-\\s\\d+)\\}\\)? {@dice 1d20 - 3|4} <- \\(?\\{@\\w+\\s+(\\w+\\s+-\\s+\\w+)\\|\\d+\\}\\)? {@dice 1d20 + 4|18} <- \\(?\\{@\\w+\\s+(\\w+\\s\\+\\s\\d+)\\|\\d+\\}\\)? {@hit +6} <- \\(?\\{@\\w+\\s+(\\+\\d+)\\}\\)? {@creature animated object (tiny)|phb|Tiny} <- \\(?\\{@\\w+\\s+(\\w+\\s\\w+\\s\\(\\w+\\))\\|\\w+\\|\\w+\\}\\)? {@spell magic missile} <- \\(?\\{@\\w+\\s+(\\w+\\s+\\w+)\\}\\)? {@chance 25|25 percent} <- \\(?\\{@\\w+\\s+\\d+\\|(\\w+\\s+\\w+)\\}\\)? {@filter beast of challenge rating 2 or lower|bestiary|challenge rating=[&0;&2]|type=beast|miscellaneous=!swarm} <- \\(?\\{@\\w+\\s+(\\w+\\s+\\w+\\s+\\w+\\s+\\w+\\s+\\d+\\s+\\w+\\s+\\w+)\\|\\w+\\|\\w+\\s+\\w+=\\[&\\d+;&\\d+\\]\\|\\w+=\\w+\\|\\w+=!\\w+\\}\\)? {@filter beasts of challenge rating 1/2 or lower|bestiary|challenge rating=[&0;&1/2]|type=beast|miscellaneous=!swarm} <- \\(?\\{@\\w+\\s+(\\w+\\s+\\w+\\s+\\w+\\s+\\w+\\s+\\d+\\/\\d+\\s+\\w+\\s+\\w+)\\|\\w+\\|\\w+\\s\\w+=\\[&\\d+;&\\d+\\/\\d+\\]\\|\\w+=\\w+\\|\\w+=!\\w+\\}\\)? {@filter fey creatures of challenge rating 1/4 or lower|bestiary|challenge rating=[&0;&1/4]|type=fey|miscellaneous=!swarm} <- \\(?\\{@\\w+\\s+(\\w+\\s+\\w+\\s+\\w+\\s+\\w+\\s+\\w+\\s+\\d+\\/\\d+\\s+\\w+\\s+\\w+)\\|\\w+\\|\\w+\\s+\\w+=\\[&\\d+;&\\d+\\/\\d+\\]\\|\\w+=\\w+\\|\\w+=!\\w+\\}\\)? {@filter fey creatures of challenge rating 1 or lower|bestiary|challenge rating=[&0;&1]|type=fey|miscellaneous=!swarm} <- \\(?\\{@\\w+\\s+(\\w+\\s+\\w+\\s+\\w+\\s+\\w+\\s+\\w+\\s+\\d+\\s+\\w+\\s+\\w+)\\|\\w+\\|\\w+\\s+\\w+=\\[&\\d+;&\\d+\\]\\|\\w+=\\w+\\|\\w+=!\\w+\\}\\)? {@item arrow|phb|arrows} <- \\(?\\{@\\w+\\s+(\\w+)\\|\\w+\\|\\w+\\}\\)? {@item crossbow bolt|phb|crossbow bolts} <- \\(?\\{@\\w+\\s+\\w+\\s+\\w+\\|\\w+\\|\\w+\\s+\\w+\\}\\)? {@creature ghoul||ghouls} <-\\(?\\{@\\w+\\s+\\w+\\|\\|(\\w+)\\}\\)? {@filter fey|bestiary|type=fey|miscellaneous=!swarm} <- \\(?\\{@\\w+\\s+(\\w+)\\|\\w+\\|\\w+=\\w+\\|\\w+=!\\w+\\}\\)? {@filter any beast|bestiary|type=beast|miscellaneous=!swarm} <- \\(?\\{@\\w+\\s+(\\w+\\s+\\w+)\\|\\w+\\|\\w+=\\w+\\|\\w+=!\\w+\\}\\)? {@race dwarf (hill)||Dwarf, hill} <- \\(?\\{@\\w+\\s+\\w+\\s+\\(\\w+\\)\\|\\|(\\w+,\\s+\\w+)\\}\\)? {@race Half-elf} <- \\(?\\{@\\w+\\s+(\\w+-?\\w+)\\}\\)? {@filter divination spells|spells|school=D} <- \\(?\\{@\\w+\\s+(\\w+\\s+\\w+)\\|\\w+\\|\\w+=\\w+\\}\\)? {@scaledamage 4d8;2d8|5-9|1d8} <- \\(?\\{@\\w+\\s+\\w+;\\w+\\|\\d+-\\d+\\|(\\w+)\\}\\)? {@creature saber-toothed tiger} <- \\(?\\{@\\w+\\s+(\\w+?-?\\w+?\\s+?\\w+?)\\}\\)? {@filter challenge rating 6 or lower|bestiary|challenge rating=[&0;&6]|tag=devil|miscellaneous=!swarm} <- \\(?\\{@filter (\\w+\\s+\\w+\\s+\\d+\\s+\\w+\\s+\\w+)\\|\\w+\\|\\w+\\s+\\w+=\\[&\\d+;&\\d+\\]\\|\\w+=\\w+\\|\\w+=!\\w+\\}\\)?'; my $regex = qr/\(?\{@\w+\s(\w+)\|\d+-\d+\|\w+\|?\w+?\}\)?/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