Regular Expressions 101

Save & Manage Regex

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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

$re = '/^(Title|Release Year|Format|Stars): *(.*)/m'; $str = 'Title: Blazing Saddles Release Year: 1974 Format: VHS Stars: Mel Brooks, Clevon Little, Harvey Korman, Gene Wilder, Slim Pickens, Madeline Kahn Title: Casablanca Release Year: 1942 Format: DVD Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Peter Lorre Title: Charade Release Year: 1953 Format: DVD Stars: Audrey Hepburn, Cary Grant, Walter Matthau, James Coburn, George Kennedy Title: Cool Hand Luke Release Year: 1967 Format: VHS Stars: Paul Newman, George Kennedy, Strother Martin Title: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Release Year: 1969 Format: VHS Stars: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katherine Ross Title: The Sting Release Year: 1973 Format: DVD Stars: Robert Redford, Paul Newman, Robert Shaw, Charles Durning Title: The Muppet Movie Release Year: 1979 Format: DVD Stars: Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Dave Geolz, Mel Brooks, James Coburn, Charles Durning, Austin Pendleton Title: Get Shorty Release Year: 1995 Format: DVD Stars: John Travolta, Danny DeVito, Renne Russo, Gene Hackman, Dennis Farina Title: My Cousin Vinny Release Year: 1992 Format: DVD Stars: Joe Pesci, Marrisa Tomei, Fred Gwynne, Austin Pendleton, Lane Smith, Ralph Macchio Title: Gladiator Release Year: 2000 Format: Blu-Ray Stars: Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielson Title: Star Wars Release Year: 1977 Format: Blu-Ray Stars: Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Alec Guinness, James Earl Jones Title: Raiders of the Lost Ark Release Year: 1981 Format: DVD Stars: Harrison Ford, Karen Allen Title: Serenity Release Year: 2005 Format: Blu-Ray Stars: Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk, Adam Baldwin, Ron Glass, Jewel Staite, Gina Torres, Morena Baccarin, Sean Maher, Summer Glau, Chiwetel Ejiofor Title: Hooisers Release Year: 1986 Format: VHS Stars: Gene Hackman, Barbara Hershey, Dennis Hopper Title: WarGames Release Year: 1983 Format: VHS Stars: Matthew Broderick, Ally Sheedy, Dabney Coleman, John Wood, Barry Corbin Title: Spaceballs Release Year: 1987 Format: DVD Stars: Bill Pullman, John Candy, Mel Brooks, Rick Moranis, Daphne Zuniga, Joan Rivers Title: Young Frankenstein Release Year: 1974 Format: VHS Stars: Gene Wilder, Kenneth Mars, Terri Garr, Gene Hackman, Peter Boyle Title: Real Genius Release Year: 1985 Format: VHS Stars: Val Kilmer, Gabe Jarret, Michelle Meyrink, William Atherton Title: Top Gun Release Year: 1986 Format: DVD Stars: Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer, Anthony Edwards, Tom Skerritt Title: MASH Release Year: 1970 Format: DVD Stars: Donald Sutherland, Elliot Gould, Tom Skerritt, Sally Kellerman, Robert Duvall Title: The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming Release Year: 1966 Format: VHS Stars: Carl Reiner, Eva Marie Saint, Alan Arkin, Brian Keith Title: Jaws Release Year: 1975 Format: DVD Stars: Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, Lorraine Gary Title: 2001: A Space Odyssey Release Year: 1968 Format: DVD Stars: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, Douglas Rain Title: Harvey Release Year: 1950 Format: DVD Stars: James Stewart, Josephine Hull, Peggy Dow, Charles Drake Title: Knocked Up Release Year: 2007 Format: Blu-Ray Stars: Seth Rogen, Katherine Heigl, Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann '; preg_match_all($re, $str, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER, 0); // Print the entire match result var_dump($matches);

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 PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php