Regular Expressions 101

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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

/
/

Test String

Code Generator

Generated Code

$re = '/\s*(?(?=<)<\s*(\w+)(?:\s+[^\s>]+=("|\'|)[^\s"\'>]+\2)*\s*(\/\s*)?>(?(3)|(?R)<\s*\/\s*\1\s*>)|[^<]*)*\s*/'; $str = '<catalog> <book id="bk101"> <author>Gambardella, Matthew</author> <title>XML Developer\'s Guide</title> <genre>Computer</genre> <price>44.95</price> <publish_date>2000-10-01</publish_date> <description>An in-depth look at creating applications with XML.</description> </book> <book id="bk102"> <author>Ralls, Kim</author> <title>Midnight Rain</title> <genre>Fantasy</genre> <price>5.95</price> <publish_date>2000-12-16</publish_date> <description>A former architect battles corporate zombies, an evil sorceress, and her own childhood to become queen of the world.</description> </book> <book id="bk103"> <author>Corets, Eva</author> <title>Maeve Ascendant</title> <genre>Fantasy</genre> <price>5.95</price> <publish_date>2000-11-17</publish_date> <description>After the collapse of a nanotechnology society in England, the young survivors lay the foundation for a new society.</description> </book> <book id="bk104"> <author>Corets, Eva</author> <title>Oberon\'s Legacy</title> <genre>Fantasy</genre> <price>5.95</price> <publish_date>2001-03-10</publish_date> <description>In post-apocalypse England, the mysterious agent known only as Oberon helps to create a new life for the inhabitants of London. Sequel to Maeve Ascendant.</description> </book> <book id="bk105"> <author>Corets, Eva</author> <title>The Sundered Grail</title> <genre>Fantasy</genre> <price>5.95</price> <publish_date>2001-09-10</publish_date> <description>The two daughters of Maeve, half-sisters, battle one another for control of England. Sequel to Oberon\'s Legacy.</description> </book> <book id="bk106"> <author>Randall, Cynthia</author> <title>Lover Birds</title> <genre>Romance</genre> <price>4.95</price> <publish_date>2000-09-02</publish_date> <description>When Carla meets Paul at an ornithology conference, tempers fly as feathers get ruffled.</description> </book> <book id="bk107"> <author>Thurman, Paula</author> <title>Splish Splash</title> <genre>Romance</genre> <price>4.95</price> <publish_date>2000-11-02</publish_date> <description>A deep sea diver finds true love twenty thousand leagues beneath the sea.</description> </book> <book id="bk108"> <author>Knorr, Stefan</author> <title>Creepy Crawlies</title> <genre>Horror</genre> <price>4.95</price> <publish_date>2000-12-06</publish_date> <description>An anthology of horror stories about roaches, centipedes, scorpions and other insects.</description> </book> <book id="bk109"> <author>Kress, Peter</author> <title>Paradox Lost</title> <genre>Science Fiction</genre> <price>6.95</price> <publish_date>2000-11-02</publish_date> <description>After an inadvertant trip through a Heisenberg Uncertainty Device, James Salway discovers the problems of being quantum.</description> </book> <book id="bk110"> <author>O\'Brien, Tim</author> <title>Microsoft .NET: The Programming Bible</title> <genre>Computer</genre> <price>36.95</price> <publish_date>2000-12-09</publish_date> <description>Microsoft\'s .NET initiative is explored in detail in this deep programmer\'s reference.</description> </book> <book id="bk111"> <author>O\'Brien, Tim</author> <title>MSXML3: A Comprehensive Guide</title> <genre>Computer</genre> <price>36.95</price> <publish_date>2000-12-01</publish_date> <description>The Microsoft MSXML3 parser is covered in detail, with attention to XML DOM interfaces, XSLT processing, SAX and more.</description> </book> <book id="bk112"> <author>Galos, Mike</author> <title>Visual Studio 7: A Comprehensive Guide</title> <genre>Computer</genre> <price>49.95</price> <publish_date>2001-04-16</publish_date> <description>Microsoft Visual Studio 7 is explored in depth, looking at how Visual Basic, Visual C++, C#, and ASP+ are integrated into a comprehensive development environment.</description> </book> </catalog>'; preg_match($re, $str, $matches, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE, 0); // Print the entire match result var_dump($matches);

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 PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php