Regular Expressions 101

book_name:the literal text book_name: (case sensitive)

Group 1([^;]+)

Negated Character Class[^;]+

+matches at least one character outside the set below:

;the literal ; (59₁₀ / 73₈ / 3B₁₆)

Group 2(author)

authorthe literal text author (case sensitive)

:the literal : (58₁₀ / 72₈ / 3A₁₆)

Group 3([^;]+)

Negated Character Class[^;]+

+matches at least one character outside the set below:

;the literal ; (59₁₀ / 73₈ / 3B₁₆)

Non-Capturing Group(?:\2:([^;]+);)?

?repeats the group contents below at most once:

\2the text saved by group 2

:the literal : (58₁₀ / 72₈ / 3A₁₆)

Group 4([^;]+)

Negated Character Class[^;]+

+matches at least one character outside the set below:

;the literal ; (59₁₀ / 73₈ / 3B₁₆)

Global pattern flags

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

m modifier: multiline. Causes ^ and $ to match the start and end of each line, not only the start and end of the string

Detailed match information will be displayed here automatically.

Search reference

Regular Expression

book_name:([^;]+);(author):([^;]+);(?:\2:([^;]+);)?

New

book_name:SoftwareEngineering;author:John;author:Smith; 
book_name:DesignPatterns;author:Foo;author:Bar;
book_name:DesignPatterns;author:Foo;