Regular Expressions 101

1st Alternative([\"'])(?:(?=(\\?))\2.)*?\1

Group 1([\"'])

Character Class[\"']

\"the literal " (34₁₀ / 42₈ / 22₁₆)

'the literal ' (39₁₀ / 47₈ / 27₁₆)

Non-Capturing Group(?:(?=(\\?))\2.)*?

*?repeats the group contents below any number of times:

Positive Lookahead(?=(\\?))

Group 2(\\?)

\\?optionally matches the literal \ (92₁₀ / 134₈ / 5C₁₆)

\2the text saved by group 2

.any character (except for line terminators)

\1the text saved by group 1

2nd Alternative(\b\w*[-']\w*\b)

Group 3(\b\w*[-']\w*\b)

\ban ASCII word boundary

\w*any word character, repeated any number of times

Character Class[-']

-the literal - (45₁₀ / 55₈ / 2D₁₆)

'the literal ' (39₁₀ / 47₈ / 27₁₆)

\w*any word character, repeated any number of times

\ban ASCII word boundary

3rd Alternative(\b(?!(?:AND|OR)\b)\w+\b)

Group 4(\b(?!(?:AND|OR)\b)\w+\b)

\ban ASCII word boundary

Negative Lookahead(?!(?:AND|OR)\b)

Non-Capturing Group(?:AND|OR)

1st AlternativeAND

ANDthe literal text AND (case sensitive)

2nd AlternativeOR

ORthe literal text OR (case sensitive)

\ban ASCII word boundary

\w+any word character, repeated at least once

\ban ASCII word boundary

Global pattern flags

g modifier: global. Finds all matches instead of stopping after the first

Detailed match information will be displayed here automatically.

Search reference

Regular Expression

([\"'])(?:(?=(\\?))\2.)*?\1|(\b\w*[-']\w*\b)|(\b(?!(?:AND|OR)\b)\w+\b)

New

word1 AND word2 AND 'word3 word4' OR word5AND ORword6 OR 'word6 \'OR\" word7'