Regular Expressions 101

Pro

1st Alternative(?:^.*?/\*|\*/.*?/\*|\*/.*)(*SKIP)(*F)

Non-Capturing Group(?:^.*?/\*|\*/.*?/\*|\*/.*)

1st Alternative^.*?/\*

^start of string

.*?any character, repeated any number of times

/the literal / (47₁₀ / 57₈ / 2F₁₆)

\*the literal * (42₁₀ / 52₈ / 2A₁₆)

2nd Alternative\*/.*?/\*

\*the literal * (42₁₀ / 52₈ / 2A₁₆)

/the literal / (47₁₀ / 57₈ / 2F₁₆)

.*?any character, repeated any number of times

/the literal / (47₁₀ / 57₈ / 2F₁₆)

\*the literal * (42₁₀ / 52₈ / 2A₁₆)

3rd Alternative\*/.*

\*the literal * (42₁₀ / 52₈ / 2A₁₆)

/the literal / (47₁₀ / 57₈ / 2F₁₆)

.*any character, repeated any number of times

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

(*F)forces the current match attempt to fail at this position

2nd Alternative\$var\s*=\s*(?:(?!\*/)[^$;])*

\$the literal $ (36₁₀ / 44₈ / 24₁₆)

varthe literal text var (case sensitive)

\s*any whitespace character, repeated any number of times

=the literal = (61₁₀ / 75₈ / 3D₁₆)

\s*any whitespace character, repeated any number of times

Non-Capturing Group(?:(?!\*/)[^$;])*

*repeats the group contents below any number of times:

Negative Lookahead(?!\*/)

\*the literal * (42₁₀ / 52₈ / 2A₁₆)

/the literal / (47₁₀ / 57₈ / 2F₁₆)

Negated Character Class[^$;]

$the literal $ (36₁₀ / 44₈ / 24₁₆)

;the literal ; (59₁₀ / 73₈ / 3B₁₆)

Global pattern flags

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

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

Detailed match information will be displayed here automatically.

25 tokens

Regular Expression

(?:^.*?/\*|\*/.*?/\*|\*/.*)(*SKIP)(*F)|\$var\s*=\s*(?:(?!\*/)[^$;])*

New

/* other code $var = value1 */
$var = value2 ;

/* 
other code
$var = value3 ;
other code
*/


$var = value4;
$var = value5;

/* 
other code
$var = value6;
$var = value7;
$var = value8
*/

$var = value8

Extraction

/* other code $var = value1 */
$var = value2 ;

/* 
other code
$var = value3 ;
other code
*/


$var = value4;
$var = value5;

/* 
other code
$var = value6;
$var = value7;
$var = value8
*/

$var = value8