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

/
/
gmx

Test String

Code Generator

Generated Code

import java.util.regex.Matcher; import java.util.regex.Pattern; public class Example { public static void main(String[] args) { final String regex = "^#start of line\n" + "(?![^\\n!]*!{2,})\n" + "(?=[^_\\n]*_[^_]*) #if _ exists, then:\n" + "([^_:]+) #mandatory group 1\n" + "((?=:[^:\\n]):[^:_(\\n]+|) #optional group 2\n" + "(_(?!_)) #group 3 mandatory\n" + "([^_\\-(\\n]+) # group 4 mandatory\n" + "\\( #mandatory (\n" + "([^()\\n]+) # group 5 mandatory\n" + "\\) #mandatory )\n" + "((?=!)!|) # group 6 optional\n" + "((?=:[^!:@\\n]):[^!:@\\n]+|) # group 7 optional\n" + "((?=::[^!:@\\n])::[^!:@\\n]+|) #group 8 optional\n" + "((?=@[^!:@\\n])@[^!:@\\n]+|) #group 9 optional\n" + "$ #end of line"; final String string = "# OK - Matches all components if all are provided\n" + "contextClassName:pc_ruleName(param_One paramTwo)!:pc::pe@media\n\n" + "# OK - Return group 2 blank when no : exists before _ which is group 3\n" + "contextClassName_ruleName(param_One paramTwo)!:pc::pe@media\n\n" + "# OK - When ! is not provided return group 6 blank\n" + "contextClassName_ruleName(param_One paramTwo):pc::pe@media\n\n" + "# NOTOK - More than one consecutive !\n" + "contextClassName_ruleName(param_One paramTwo)!!:pc::pe@media\n\n" + "# NOTOK - 3 More than two : at instruction tail\n" + "contextClassName_ruleName(param_One paramTwo):::pe@media\n\n" + "# OK - 2 At instruction tail :: is resolved to group 8 \n" + "contextClassName_ruleName(param_One paramTwo)::pe@media\n\n" + "# OK - 1 At instruction tail : is resolved to group 7 \n" + "contextClassName_ruleName(param_One paramTwo):pe@media\n\n" + "# OK - At instruction start : followed by chars\n" + "contextClassName:pc_ruleName(param_One paramTwo):pe@media\n\n" + "# NOTOK - At instruction start : not followed by chars\n" + "contextClassName:_ruleName(param_One paramTwo):pe@media\n\n" + "# NOTOK - At instruction start :: followed by chars\n" + "contextClassName::pc_ruleName(param_One paramTwo):pe@media\n\n" + "# OK - Whole instruction tail is optional \n" + "contextClassName:pc_ruleName(param_One paramTwo)\n\n" + "# OK - Parameter value can contain anything\n" + "contextClassName:pc_ruleName(param_One param#$^Two)"; final Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(regex, Pattern.MULTILINE | Pattern.COMMENTS); 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