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

/
/
gi

Test String

Substitution

Processing...

Code Generator

Language

Generated Code

import Foundation let pattern = #"((?:[\w'-]+,\s+)+(?:[\w'-]+\s){0,2}[\w'-]+)(\s+(and|or)\s+[\w'-]+)"# let regex = try! NSRegularExpression(pattern: pattern, options: .caseInsensitive) let testString = #""" I love my parents, Bon Jovi and Lada Gaga. We invited the strippers, Hitler and Stalin. The problem is, you can never know if the user is making a list, or just typing a bunch of words and inserting commas. I'm not sure whether to eat, shoot or leave! List of words: can, can't and won't. I will not use three-legged, blue or wooden stools. Don't get this one or I'll be upset at you. Put a command before this and I'll be sad. """# let stringRange = NSRange(location: 0, length: testString.utf16.count) let substitutionString = #"$1,$2"# let result = regex.stringByReplacingMatches(in: testString, range: stringRange, withTemplate: substitutionString) 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