Regular Expressions 101

Pro

1st Alternative(?<!\\)(?:\\{2})*(?:"[^"\\]*(?:\\.[^"\\]*)*"|'[^'\\]*(?:\\.[^'\\]*)*')(*SKIP)(?!)

Negative Lookbehind(?<!\\)

\\the literal \ (92₁₀ / 134₈ / 5C₁₆)

Non-Capturing Group(?:\\{2})*

*repeats the group contents below any number of times:

\\{2}the literal \ (92₁₀ / 134₈ / 5C₁₆) , repeated exactly 2 times

Non-Capturing Group(?:"[^"\\]*(?:\\.[^"\\]*)*"|'[^'\\]*(?:\\.[^'\\]*)*')

1st Alternative"[^"\\]*(?:\\.[^"\\]*)*"

"the literal " (34₁₀ / 42₈ / 22₁₆)

Negated Character Class[^"\\]*

*matches any number of characters outside the set below:

"the literal " (34₁₀ / 42₈ / 22₁₆)

\\the literal \ (92₁₀ / 134₈ / 5C₁₆)

Non-Capturing Group(?:\\.[^"\\]*)*

*repeats the group contents below any number of times:

\\the literal \ (92₁₀ / 134₈ / 5C₁₆)

.any character

Negated Character Class[^"\\]*

*matches any number of characters outside the set below:

"the literal " (34₁₀ / 42₈ / 22₁₆)

\\the literal \ (92₁₀ / 134₈ / 5C₁₆)

"the literal " (34₁₀ / 42₈ / 22₁₆)

2nd Alternative'[^'\\]*(?:\\.[^'\\]*)*'

'the literal ' (39₁₀ / 47₈ / 27₁₆)

Negated Character Class[^'\\]*

*matches any number of characters outside the set below:

'the literal ' (39₁₀ / 47₈ / 27₁₆)

\\the literal \ (92₁₀ / 134₈ / 5C₁₆)

Non-Capturing Group(?:\\.[^'\\]*)*

*repeats the group contents below any number of times:

\\the literal \ (92₁₀ / 134₈ / 5C₁₆)

.any character

Negated Character Class[^'\\]*

*matches any number of characters outside the set below:

'the literal ' (39₁₀ / 47₈ / 27₁₆)

\\the literal \ (92₁₀ / 134₈ / 5C₁₆)

'the literal ' (39₁₀ / 47₈ / 27₁₆)

(*SKIP)acts like (*PRUNE), but the next unanchored match attempt starts where (*SKIP) was reached instead of at the next subject character

Negative Lookahead(?!) — always fails to match

2nd Alternative\s+

\s+any whitespace character, repeated at least once

Global pattern flags

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

s modifier: single line. Allows a dot to match line terminators

Detailed match information will be displayed here automatically.

25 tokens

Regular Expression

(?<!\\)(?:\\{2})*(?:"[^"\\]*(?:\\.[^"\\]*)*"|'[^'\\]*(?:\\.[^'\\]*)*')(*SKIP)(?!)|\s+

New

abc | xx ??   "1 x ' 3" d e f ' y " 5 ' x yz

Extraction

abc | xx ??   "1 x ' 3" d e f ' y " 5 ' x yz