Regular Expressions 101

Group 1([A-Z][\w\-]+ )?

?repeats the group contents below at most once:

Character Class[A-Z]

A-Zone character from A (65₁₀) to Z (90₁₀) (case sensitive)

Character Class[\w\-]+

+matches at least one character from the set below:

\wany word character

\-the literal - (45₁₀ / 55₈ / 2D₁₆)

the literal (32₁₀ / 40₈ / 20₁₆)

\(the literal ( (40₁₀ / 50₈ / 28₁₆)

Group 2(\D*\d{4}(: ?[\d\-]*)*(, \d{4}(: ?[\d\-]*)*)*;?)*

*repeats the group contents below any number of times:

\D*any character that's not a digit, repeated any number of times

\d{4}a digit, repeated exactly 4 times

Group 3(: ?[\d\-]*)*

*repeats the group contents below any number of times:

:the literal : (58₁₀ / 72₈ / 3A₁₆)

?optionally matches the literal (32₁₀ / 40₈ / 20₁₆)

Character Class[\d\-]*

*matches any number of characters from the set below:

\da digit

\-the literal - (45₁₀ / 55₈ / 2D₁₆)

Group 4(, \d{4}(: ?[\d\-]*)*)*

*repeats the group contents below any number of times:

, the literal text ,

\d{4}a digit, repeated exactly 4 times

Group 5(: ?[\d\-]*)*

*repeats the group contents below any number of times:

:the literal : (58₁₀ / 72₈ / 3A₁₆)

?optionally matches the literal (32₁₀ / 40₈ / 20₁₆)

Character Class[\d\-]*

*matches any number of characters from the set below:

\da digit

\-the literal - (45₁₀ / 55₈ / 2D₁₆)

;?optionally matches the literal ; (59₁₀ / 73₈ / 3B₁₆)

\)the literal ) (41₁₀ / 51₈ / 29₁₆)

Detailed match information will be displayed here automatically.

Search reference

Regular Expression

([A-Z][\w\-]+ )?\((\D*\d{4}(: ?[\d\-]*)*(, \d{4}(: ?[\d\-]*)*)*;?)*\)

Graham (Doe 2016:45, 2012; Graham 2012, 2014:676-678; Smith 2008) writes that ...