Regular Expressions 101

Explanation

Pro

Group 1(^|[.\?\!]\s+)

1st Alternative^

^start of line

2nd Alternative[.\?\!]\s+

Character Class[.\?\!]

.the literal . (46₁₀ / 56₈ / 2E₁₆)

\?the literal ? (63₁₀ / 77₈ / 3F₁₆)

\!the literal ! (33₁₀ / 41₈ / 21₁₆)

\s+any whitespace character, repeated at least once

Group 2(([A-Z][A-Za-z\'\-]+)\.?\s+)*

*repeats the group contents below any number of times:

Group 3([A-Z][A-Za-z\'\-]+)

Character Class[A-Z]

A-Zone character from A (65₁₀) to Z (90₁₀) (case sensitive)

Character Class[A-Za-z\'\-]+

+matches at least one character from the set below:

A-Zone character from A (65₁₀) to Z (90₁₀) (case sensitive)

a-zone character from a (97₁₀) to z (122₁₀) (case sensitive)

\'the literal ' (39₁₀ / 47₈ / 27₁₆)

\-the literal - (45₁₀ / 55₈ / 2D₁₆)

\.?optionally matches the literal . (46₁₀ / 56₈ / 2E₁₆)

\s+any whitespace character, repeated at least once

Group 4([A-Z][A-Z\'\-]*\.?)

Character Class[A-Z]

A-Zone character from A (65₁₀) to Z (90₁₀) (case sensitive)

Character Class[A-Z\'\-]*

*matches any number of characters from the set below:

A-Zone character from A (65₁₀) to Z (90₁₀) (case sensitive)

\'the literal ' (39₁₀ / 47₈ / 27₁₆)

\-the literal - (45₁₀ / 55₈ / 2D₁₆)

\.?optionally matches the literal . (46₁₀ / 56₈ / 2E₁₆)

Group 5(\s+[A-Z][A-Z\'\-]*\.?)*

*repeats the group contents below any number of times:

\s+any whitespace character, repeated at least once

Character Class[A-Z]

A-Zone character from A (65₁₀) to Z (90₁₀) (case sensitive)

Character Class[A-Z\'\-]*

*matches any number of characters from the set below:

A-Zone character from A (65₁₀) to Z (90₁₀) (case sensitive)

\'the literal ' (39₁₀ / 47₈ / 27₁₆)

\-the literal - (45₁₀ / 55₈ / 2D₁₆)

\.?optionally matches the literal . (46₁₀ / 56₈ / 2E₁₆)

,?optionally matches the literal , (44₁₀ / 54₈ / 2C₁₆)

Group 6(\s+([A-z][A-z\'\-]+))*

*repeats the group contents below any number of times:

\s+any whitespace character, repeated at least once

Group 7([A-z][A-z\'\-]+)

Character Class[A-z]

A-zone character from A (65₁₀) to z (122₁₀) (case sensitive)

Character Class[A-z\'\-]+

+matches at least one character from the set below:

A-zone character from A (65₁₀) to z (122₁₀) (case sensitive)

\'the literal ' (39₁₀ / 47₈ / 27₁₆)

\-the literal - (45₁₀ / 55₈ / 2D₁₆)

Group 8(\s*\([^\(\)]*\))?

?repeats the group contents below at most once:

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

\(the literal ( (40₁₀ / 50₈ / 28₁₆)

Negated Character Class[^\(\)]*

*matches any number of characters outside the set below:

\(the literal ( (40₁₀ / 50₈ / 28₁₆)

\)the literal ) (41₁₀ / 51₈ / 29₁₆)

\)the literal ) (41₁₀ / 51₈ / 29₁₆)

:the literal : (58₁₀ / 72₈ / 3A₁₆)

Group 9(\s*\([^\(\)]*\))*

*repeats the group contents below any number of times:

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

\(the literal ( (40₁₀ / 50₈ / 28₁₆)

Negated Character Class[^\(\)]*

*matches any number of characters outside the set below:

\(the literal ( (40₁₀ / 50₈ / 28₁₆)

\)the literal ) (41₁₀ / 51₈ / 29₁₆)

\)the literal ) (41₁₀ / 51₈ / 29₁₆)

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

Match Information

Detailed match information will be displayed here automatically.

Quick Reference

25 tokens

Regular Expression

(^|[.\?\!]\s+)(([A-Z][A-Za-z\'\-]+)\.?\s+)*([A-Z][A-Z\'\-]*\.?)(\s+[A-Z][A-Z\'\-]*\.?)*,?(\s+([A-z][A-z\'\-]+))*(\s*\([^\(\)]*\))?:(\s*\([^\(\)]*\))*

New

STEVE INSKEEP, host: It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep in Washington. RENEE MONTAGNE, host: And I'm Renee Montagne in London. INSKEEP: This week, NPR is beginning a yearlong series exploring the ways that people change the climate, and the way the climate changes people. MONTAGNE: Which is the reason I'm in Great Britain all this week. It's the first stop on our travels reporting on climate change. We're going around the world and making the occasional trip back in time. On this morning, I'm at London's Natural History Museum. Here you'll find the story of the some of the first people to come to Britain about 700,000 years ago. They faced some pretty dramatic changes in climate back then. NPR's Joe Palca has been learning how that might provide some clues for what lies ahead for us now, and he has this report. JOE PALCA: Whenever I go to Britain, I'm always impressed by how many old buildings and churches are still standing. My Scottish friend, Bruce, likes to remin