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
No Match

`
`
gm

Test String

Code Generator

Language

Generated Code

import java.util.regex.Matcher; import java.util.regex.Pattern; public class Example { public static void main(String[] args) { final String regex = "^\\s+(?P<user>[\\w[:print:]]+) [\\w\\-\\.]+ [[:print:]]+ ?\\(v[\\w\\.]+\\) \\([\\w\\-\\.]+\\/\\d+ \\d+\\)\\, start \\w+ \\d+\\/\\d+ \\d+\\:\\d+(\\,\\s(?P<licenses>\\d+)\\s\\w+|)(\\s+\\(linger\\:\\s\\d+\\s\\/\\s\\d+\\))?$"; final String string = "\n" + " userone host01 :78 APS Base (v19.100) (licserver/27010 7401), start Thu 5/14 15:31, 2 licenses\n" + " userone host01 :78 APS Multi-core (Max. 16 cores) (v19.100) (licserver/27010 7501), start Thu 5/14 15:31, 4 licenses\n" + " userone host01 :75 APS Base (v19.100) (licserver/27010 18901), start Thu 5/14 15:33, 2 licenses\n" + " userone host01 :75 APS Multi-core (Max. 16 cores) (v19.100) (licserver/27010 19001), start Thu 5/14 15:33, 4 licenses\n" + " userone host01 :76 APS Base (v19.100) (licserver/27010 18702), start Thu 5/14 15:34, 2 licenses\n" + " userone host01 :76 APS Multi-core (Max. 16 cores) (v19.100) (licserver/27010 17002), start Thu 5/14 15:34, 4 licenses\n" + " userone host01 :77 APS Base (v19.100) (licserver/27010 23302), start Thu 5/14 15:34, 2 licenses\n" + " userone host01 :77 APS Multi-core (Max. 16 cores) (v19.100) (licserver/27010 23801), start Thu 5/14 15:34, 4 licenses\n" + " userone host01 :60 APS Base (v19.100) (licserver/27010 23901), start Thu 5/14 15:34, 2 licenses\n" + " userone host01 :60 APS Multi-core (Max. 16 cores) (v19.100) (licserver/27010 24001), start Thu 5/14 15:34, 4 licenses\n" + " userone host01 :68 APS Base (v19.100) (licserver/27010 25501), start Thu 5/14 15:34, 2 licenses\n" + " userone host01 :68 APS Multi-core (Max. 16 cores) (v19.100) (licserver/27010 25601), start Thu 5/14 15:34, 4 licenses\n" + " userone host01 :58 APS Base (v19.100) (licserver/27010 22803), start Thu 5/14 15:34, 2 licenses\n" + " userone host01 :58 APS Multi-core (Max. 16 cores) (v19.100) (licserver/27010 27801), start Thu 5/14 15:34, 4 licenses\n" + " useronexr host01 :51 Spectre X Base (v19.100) (licserver/27010 61140), start Sat 5/16 13:41, 3 licenses\n" + " useronexr host01 :52 Spectre X Base (v19.100) (licserver/27010 31125), start Sat 5/16 13:43, 3 licenses\n" + " useronexr host01 :76 Spectre X Base (v19.100) (licserver/27010 53463), start Sat 5/16 13:47, 3 licenses\n" + " useronexr host01 :69 Spectre X Base (v19.100) (licserver/27010 41523), start Sat 5/16 13:47, 3 licenses\n" + " useronexr host01 :51 Spectre X Multi-core (Max. 16 cores) (v19.100) (licserver/27010 46233), start Sat 5/16 14:08, 6 licenses\n" + " useronex host01 :52 Spectre X Multi-core (Max. 16 cores) (v19.100) (licserver/27010 32328), start Sat 5/16 14:10, 6 licenses\n" + " useronex host01 :69 Spectre X Multi-core (Max. 16 cores) (v19.100) (licserver/27010 10953), start Sat 5/16 14:16, 6 licenses\n" + " useronex host02 :76 Spectre X Multi-core (Max. 16 cores) (v19.100) (licserver/27010 32114), start Sat 5/16 14:17, 6 licenses\n" + " useronexr host02 localhost:10 APS Base (v19.100) (licserver/27010 31935), start Sun 5/17 10:18, 2 licenses\n" + " useronexr host02 localhost:10 APS Multi-core (Max. 16 cores) (v19.100) (licserver/27010 6614), start Sun 5/17 10:21, 4 licenses\n\n"; final Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(regex, Pattern.MULTILINE); final Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(string); while (matcher.find()) { System.out.println("Full match: " + matcher.group(0)); for (int i = 1; i <= matcher.groupCount(); i++) { System.out.println("Group " + i + ": " + matcher.group(i)); } } } }

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 Java, please visit: https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/util/regex/Pattern.html