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

/
/
mg

Test String

Code Generator

Language

Generated Code

const regex = /^(?<ip_addr>((\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3})|((([\da-fA-F]{1,4}:){7})([\da-fA-F]{1,4})$|(([\da-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,6}:)(([\da-fA-F]{1,4}:){0,4})([\da-fA-F]{1,4}))|(::[\da-fA-F]{1,4})|(([\da-fA-F]{1,4}:){0,7}[\da-fA-F]{1,4}::)))$/mg; // Alternative syntax using RegExp constructor // const regex = new RegExp('^(?<ip_addr>((\\d{1,3}\\.\\d{1,3}\\.\\d{1,3}\\.\\d{1,3})|((([\\da-fA-F]{1,4}:){7})([\\da-fA-F]{1,4})$|(([\\da-fA-F]{1,4}:){1,6}:)(([\\da-fA-F]{1,4}:){0,4})([\\da-fA-F]{1,4}))|(::[\\da-fA-F]{1,4})|(([\\da-fA-F]{1,4}:){0,7}[\\da-fA-F]{1,4}::)))$', 'mg') const str = `1.2.3.4 01.02.3.4 01.02.03.04 128.101.1.1 128.1.101.101 987.654.321.0 2607:ea00:101:102:103:104:105:106 2607:eA00:abcd:efab:cDeF:0000:0000:0001 fe80::64 ff02:: ::1 2001:468:: 2001::468::4 :::1 2001:410::: 123.123.1a3.313 1.2.3. .2.3.4 `; // Reset `lastIndex` if this regex is defined globally // regex.lastIndex = 0; let m; while ((m = regex.exec(str)) !== null) { // This is necessary to avoid infinite loops with zero-width matches if (m.index === regex.lastIndex) { regex.lastIndex++; } // The result can be accessed through the `m`-variable. m.forEach((match, groupIndex) => { console.log(`Found match, group ${groupIndex}: ${match}`); }); }

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 JavaScript, please visit: https://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Web/JavaScript/Guide/Regular_Expressions