Regular Expressions 101

Save & Share

Flavor

  • PCRE2 (PHP >=7.3)
  • PCRE (PHP <7.3)
  • ECMAScript (JavaScript)
  • Python
  • Golang
  • Java 8
  • .NET 7.0 (C#)
  • Rust
  • Regex Flavor Guide

Function

  • Match
  • Substitution
  • List
  • Unit Tests

Tools

Sponsors
There are currently no sponsors. Become a sponsor today!
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

/
/
gxmu

Test String

Code Generator

Language

Generated Code

using System; using System.Text.RegularExpressions; public class Example { public static void Main() { string pattern = @"^\s+<span.+lj:user="" ([-\w]{1,15}) "".+<b> ([-\w\s]+) <\/b>.+&nbsp;&mdash;\s ([-\.\w\s]+) <\/div>$"; string input = @" <div> <span class=""ljuser i-ljuser i-ljuser-type-P "" data-ljuser=""canonf"" lj:user=""canonf"" ><a href=""http://canonf.livejournal.com/profile"" target=""_self"" class=""i-ljuser-profile"" ><img class=""i-ljuser-userhead"" src=""http://l-stat.livejournal.net/img/userinfo.gif?v=17080?v=134.3"" /></a><a href=""http://canonf.livejournal.com/"" class=""i-ljuser-username"" target=""_self"" ><b>canonf</b></a></span>&nbsp;&mdash; Растоптать от души. </div> <div> <span class=""ljuser i-ljuser i-ljuser-type-I "" data-ljuser=""ext_2056646"" lj:user=""ext_2056646"" ><a href=""http://www.livejournal.com/profile?userid=65329483&t=I"" target=""_self"" class=""i-ljuser-profile"" ><img class=""i-ljuser-userhead"" src=""http://l-stat.livejournal.net/img/icons/facebook-16.png?v=29916?v=134.3"" /></a><a href=""http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001197014517"" class=""i-ljuser-username"" target=""_self"" ><b>Летающий Котёнок</b></a></span>&nbsp;&mdash; Растоптать от души. </div>"; RegexOptions options = RegexOptions.IgnorePatternWhitespace | RegexOptions.Multiline | RegexOptions.CultureInvariant; foreach (Match m in Regex.Matches(input, pattern, options)) { Console.WriteLine("'{0}' found at index {1}.", m.Value, m.Index); } } }

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 C#, please visit: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.text.regularexpressions.regex(v=vs.110).aspx