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
Processing...

Test String

Code Generator

Language

Generated Code

import re regex = re.compile(r"<tagname((.|\n)(?!string))*?<\/tagname>", flags=re.IGNORECASE | re.MULTILINE) test_str = ("<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\"?>\n" "<OdfBody Source=\"IDS\" DocumentCode=\"EQ0000000\" Serial=\"869\" Time=\"104139151\" CompetitionCode=\"PG2016\" Date=\"2016-09-02\" FeedFlag=\"P\" LogicalDate=\"2016-09-02\" DocumentType=\"DT_PARTIC\" Version=\"3\" >\n" " <Competition Code=\"PG2016\">\n" " <Participant Parent=\"1057257\" MainFunctionId=\"AA01\" OlympicSolidarity=\"N\" Organisation=\"AUT\" Code=\"1057257\" BirthDate=\"1977-12-15\" Nationality=\"AUT\" Status=\"ACTIVE\" TVName=\"Michael Martin KNAUDER\" GivenName=\"Michael Martin\" Gender=\"M\" TVInitialName=\"M.M. KNAUDER\" FamilyName=\"KNAUDER\" PrintName=\"KNAUDER Michael Martin\" PrintInitialName=\"KNAUDER MM\" Current=\"true\">\n" " <Discipline IFId=\"10081843\" Code=\"EQ\">\n" " <RegisteredEvent Event=\"001\" Class=\"GIA\" Gender=\"X\">\n" " <EventEntry Value=\"H014452\" Type=\"ENTRY\" Code=\"HORSE_ID\"/>\n" " <EventEntry Value=\"P 7\" Type=\"ENTRY\" Code=\"PROFILE\"/>\n" " </RegisteredEvent>\n" " <RegisteredEvent Event=\"401\" Class=\"GIA\" Gender=\"X\">\n" " <EventEntry Value=\"H014452\" Type=\"ENTRY\" Code=\"HORSE\"/>\n" " <EventEntry Value=\"P 7\" Type=\"ENTRY\" Code=\"PROFILE\"/>\n" " </RegisteredEvent>\n" " <RegisteredEvent Event=\"420\" Class=\"GIA\" Gender=\"X\">\n" " <EventEntry Value=\"H014452\" Type=\"ENTRY\" Code=\"HORSE_ID\"/>\n" " <EventEntry Value=\"P 7\" Type=\"ENTRY\" Code=\"PROFILE\"/>\n" " </RegisteredEvent>\n" " </Discipline>\n" " </Participant>\n" " <Participant Parent=\"1063065\" MainFunctionId=\"TM_OFFIC\" OlympicSolidarity=\"N\" Organisation=\"CZE\" Code=\"1063065\" BirthDate=\"1974-10-28\" Nationality=\"CZE\" Status=\"ACTIVE\" TVName=\"Lenka MATOSKOVA\" GivenName=\"Lenka\" Gender=\"W\" TVInitialName=\"L. MATOSKOVA\" FamilyName=\"MATOSKOVA\" PrintName=\"MATOSKOVA Lenka\" PrintInitialName=\"MATOSKOVA L\" Current=\"true\">\n" " <Discipline Code=\"EQ\"/>\n" " </Participant>\n" " <Participant Parent=\"1096278\" MainFunctionId=\"AA01\" OlympicSolidarity=\"N\" Organisation=\"AUT\" Code=\"1096278\" BirthDate=\"1995-09-24\" Nationality=\"AUT\" Status=\"ACTIVE\" TVName=\"Julia SCIANCALEPORE\" GivenName=\"Julia\" Gender=\"W\" TVInitialName=\"J. SCIANCALEPORE\" FamilyName=\"SCIANCALEPORE\" PrintName=\"SCIANCALEPORE Julia\" PrintInitialName=\"SCIANCALEPORE J\" Current=\"true\">\n" " <Discipline IFId=\"10108391\" Code=\"EQ\">\n" " <RegisteredEvent Event=\"001\" Class=\"GIA\" Gender=\"X\">\n" " <EventEntry Value=\"H014366\" Type=\"ENTRY\" Code=\"HORSE_ID\"/>\n" " <EventEntry Value=\"P 12a\" Type=\"ENTRY\" Code=\"PROFILE\"/>\n" " </RegisteredEvent>\n" " <RegisteredEvent Event=\"401\" Class=\"GIA\" Gender=\"X\">\n" " <EventEntry Value=\"H014366\" Type=\"ENTRY\" Code=\"HORSE\"/>\n" " <EventEntry Value=\"P 12a\" Type=\"ENTRY\" Code=\"PROFILE\"/>\n" " </RegisteredEvent>\n" " <RegisteredEvent Event=\"420\" Class=\"GIA\" Gender=\"X\">\n" " <EventEntry Value=\"H014366\" Type=\"ENTRY\" Code=\"HORSE_ID\"/>\n" " <EventEntry Value=\"P 12a\" Type=\"ENTRY\" Code=\"PROFILE\"/>\n" " </RegisteredEvent>\n" " </Discipline>\n" " </Participant>\n" " </Competition>\n" "</OdfBody>") matches = regex.finditer(test_str) for match_num, match in enumerate(matches, start=1): print(f"Match {match_num} was found at {match.start()}-{match.end()}: {match.group()}") for group_num, group in enumerate(match.groups(), start=1): print(f"Group {group_num} found at {match.start(group_num)}-{match.end(group_num)}: {group}")

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 Python, please visit: https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html