Regular Expressions 101

Pro

1st Alternative(\d+)[^,.\d\n]+?(?=arrest|custody)

Group 1(\d+)

\d+a digit, repeated at least once

Negated Character Class[^,.\d\n]+?

+?matches at least one character outside the set below:

,the literal , (44₁₀ / 54₈ / 2C₁₆)

.the literal . (46₁₀ / 56₈ / 2E₁₆)

\da digit

\na line-feed (newline) character (ASCII 10)

Positive Lookahead(?=arrest|custody)

1st Alternativearrest

arrestthe literal text arrest (case sensitive)

2nd Alternativecustody

custodythe literal text custody (case sensitive)

2nd Alternative(?<=arrest|custody)[^,.\d\n]+?(\d+)

Positive Lookbehind(?<=arrest|custody)

1st Alternativearrest

arrestthe literal text arrest (case sensitive)

2nd Alternativecustody

custodythe literal text custody (case sensitive)

Negated Character Class[^,.\d\n]+?

+?matches at least one character outside the set below:

,the literal , (44₁₀ / 54₈ / 2C₁₆)

.the literal . (46₁₀ / 56₈ / 2E₁₆)

\da digit

\na line-feed (newline) character (ASCII 10)

Group 2(\d+)

\d+a digit, repeated at least once

Global pattern flags

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

Detailed match information will be displayed here automatically.

25 tokens

Regular Expression

(\d+)[^,.\d\n]+?(?=arrest|custody)|(?<=arrest|custody)[^,.\d\n]+?(\d+)

New

Police arrested 2 people

4 people were arrested

The number 4. Arrested by police #(Sentence ended - no match)

5 people were taken into custody today

Extraction

Police arrested 2 people

4 people were arrested

The number 4. Arrested by police #(Sentence ended - no match)

5 people were taken into custody today