Regular Expressions 101

Save & Manage Regex

  • Current Version: 8
  • Save & Share
  • Community Library

Flavor

  • PCRE2 (PHP)
  • ECMAScript (JavaScript)
  • Python
  • Golang
  • Java
  • .NET 7.0 (C#)
  • Rust
  • PCRE (Legacy)
  • Regex Flavor Guide

Function

  • Match
  • Substitution
  • List
  • Unit Tests
Sponsors
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]
  • Character class intersection
    [\w&&[^\d]]
  • 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

Generated Code

import java.util.regex.Matcher; import java.util.regex.Pattern; public class Example { public static void main(String[] args) { final String regex = "([-*]+[\\t ]*\\b(edit|update)\\b([\\t ]*#?[0-9]+)?[\\t ]*:*[\\t ]*[-*]+|[\\t ]*\\b(edit|update)\\b([\\t ]*#?[0-9]+)?\\s*:+[\\t ]*)"; final String string = "Match & remove \"edit\" and \"update\", leaving surrounding useful text. If formatting is useful without the removed text, leave it; otherwise remove it, too. Don't remove trailing spaces or line feeds.\n\n" + "UPDATE: changed the example to show use,\n\n" + "Edit: Something different\n\n" + "**EDIT** I really mean this one...\n\n" + "Edit #2: \n\n" + "-- Edit --\n\n" + "**Edit: More precise explanation:**\n\n" + "-----------------------------------------------\n" + "Since \"edit\" and \"update\" are not inherently bad words, leave normal use of them:\n\n" + "I'm going to edit my question. Better not match any of this update here.\n\n" + "Edit the file to...\n\n" + "Update for anyone who cares:\n\n" + "Update for nobody.\n\n" + "***editprofile.js***\n"; final Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(regex, Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE | 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