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

/
/
gmx

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 = "(?<!\\\\) # negative look-behind to make sure start is not escaped \n" + "(?: # start non-capture group for all possible match starts\n" + " # group 1, match dollar signs only \n" + " # single or double dollar sign enforced by look-arounds\n" + " ((?<!\\$)\\${1,2}(?!\\$))|\n" + " # group 2, match escaped parenthesis\n" + " (\\\\\\()|\n" + " # group 3, match escaped bracket\n" + " (\\\\\\[)| \n" + " # group 4, match begin equation\n" + " (\\\\begin\\{equation\\})\n" + ")\n" + "# if group 1 was start\n" + "(?(1)\n" + " # non greedy match everything in between\n" + " # group 1 matches do not support recursion\n" + " (.*?)(?<!\\\\)\n" + " # match ending double or single dollar signs\n" + " (?<!\\$)\\1(?!\\$)| \n" + "# else\n" + "(?:\n" + " # greedily and recursively match everything in between\n" + " # groups 2, 3 and 4 support recursion\n" + " (.*(?R)?.*)(?<!\\\\)\n" + " (?:\n" + " # if group 2 was start, escaped parenthesis is end\n" + " (?(2)\\\\\\)| \n" + " # if group 3 was start, escaped bracket is end\n" + " (?(3)\\\\\\]| \n" + " # else group 4 was start, match end equation\n" + " \\\\end\\{equation\\}\n" + " )\n" + "))))"; final String string = "NOTE: For test purposes each test has been contained to one line, please enable the s flag for multi-line matches.\n\n" + "$ match $ don't match nested $ match $\n\n" + "$$ no match$\n" + "$no match$$\n" + "\\\\$no match\\\\$\n" + "$no match\\\\$\n" + "\\\\$no match\\\\$\n\n" + "$$ match $$ don't match nested $$ match $$\n\n" + "$$$ no match $$\n" + "$$ no match $$$\n" + "\\\\$$ no match$$\n" + "$$ no match\\\\$$\n" + "\\\\$$ no match\\\\$$\n\n" + "\\( match \\)\n" + "\\( 1 \\( nested match \\) 3 \\)\n\n" + "\\\\( no match \\\\)\n" + "\\( no match \\\\\\\\)\n" + "\\\\\\\\( no match \\\\\\\\)\n\n" + "\\[ match \\]\n" + "\\[ 1 \\[ nested match \\] 3 \\]\n\n" + "\\\\\\\\[ no match \\\\]\n" + "\\\\[ no match \\\\\\\\]\n" + "\\\\\\\\[ no match \\\\\\\\]\n\n" + "\\begin{equation} match \\end{equation}\n" + "\\begin{equation} 1 \\begin{equation} nested match \\end{equation} \\end{equation}\n\n" + "\\\\\\\\begin{equation} no match \\\\end{equation}\n" + "\\\\begin{equation} no match \\\\\\\\end{equation}\n" + "\\\\\\\\begin{equation} no match \\\\end{equation}"; final Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(regex, Pattern.MULTILINE | Pattern.COMMENTS); 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