Regular Expressions 101

Explanation

Pro

^start of line

Group 1(\w+(?: \w+)*)

\w+any word character, repeated at least once

Non-Capturing Group(?: \w+)*

*repeats the group contents below any number of times:

the literal (32₁₀ / 40₈ / 20₁₆)

\w+any word character, repeated at least once

{4}the literal (32₁₀ / 40₈ / 20₁₆) , repeated exactly 4 times

Group 2(\w+(?: \w+)*)

\w+any word character, repeated at least once

Non-Capturing Group(?: \w+)*

*repeats the group contents below any number of times:

the literal (32₁₀ / 40₈ / 20₁₆)

\w+any word character, repeated at least once

{4}the literal (32₁₀ / 40₈ / 20₁₆) , repeated exactly 4 times

Group 3(\w+(?: \w+)*)

\w+any word character, repeated at least once

Non-Capturing Group(?: \w+)*

*repeats the group contents below any number of times:

the literal (32₁₀ / 40₈ / 20₁₆)

\w+any word character, repeated at least once

$end of line

Global pattern flags

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

m modifier: multiline. Causes ^ and $ to match the start and end of each line, not only the start and end of the string

Detailed match information will be displayed here automatically.

25 tokens

^(\w+(?: \w+)*) {4}(\w+(?: \w+)*) {4}(\w+(?: \w+)*)$

word 1    word 2    word 3
word1    word2    word3

word 1    word 2    word 3
word1    word2    word3