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
No Match

r"
"

Test String

Substitution

Processing...

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 = "(?:(?:\\n)?[^\\n]*){0,22}"; final String string = "/*\n" + " * Copyright 2014, Michael T. Goodrich, Roberto Tamassia, Michael H. Goldwasser\n" + " *\n" + " * Developed for use with the book:\n" + " *\n" + " * Data Structures and Algorithms in Java, Sixth Edition\n" + " * Michael T. Goodrich, Roberto Tamassia, and Michael H. Goldwasser\n" + " * John Wiley & Sons, 2014\n" + " *\n" + " * This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify\n" + " * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by\n" + " * the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or\n" + " * (at your option) any later version.\n" + " *\n" + " * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,\n" + " * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of\n" + " * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the\n" + " * GNU General Public License for more details.\n" + " *\n" + " * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License\n" + " * along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.\n" + " */\n" + "package dsaj.arrays;\n\n" + "import java.util.Arrays;\n\n" + "/** Class for doing encryption and decryption using the Caesar Cipher. */\n" + "public class CaesarCipher {\n" + " protected char[] encoder = new char[26]; // Encryption array\n" + " protected char[] decoder = new char[26]; // Decryption array\n\n" + " /** Constructor that initializes the encryption and decryption arrays */\n" + " public CaesarCipher(int rotation) {\n" + " for (int k=0; k < 26; k++) {\n" + " encoder[k] = (char) ('A' + (k + rotation) % 26);\n" + " decoder[k] = (char) ('A' + (k - rotation + 26) % 26);\n" + " }\n" + " }\n\n" + " /** Returns String representing encrypted message. */\n" + " public String encrypt(String message) {\n" + " return transform(message, encoder); // use encoder array\n" + " }\n\n" + " /** Returns decrypted message given encrypted secret. */\n" + " public String decrypt(String secret) {\n" + " return transform(secret, decoder); // use decoder array\n" + " }\n\n" + " /** Returns transformation of original String using given code. */\n" + " private String transform(String original, char[] code) {\n" + " char[] msg = original.toCharArray();\n" + " for (int k=0; k < msg.length; k++)\n" + " if (Character.isUpperCase(msg[k])) { // we have a letter to change\n" + " int j = msg[k] - 'A'; // will be value from 0 to 25\n" + " msg[k] = code[j]; // replace the character\n" + " }\n" + " return new String(msg);\n" + " }\n\n" + " /** Simple main method for testing the Caesar cipher */\n" + " public static void main(String[] args) {\n" + " CaesarCipher cipher = new CaesarCipher(3);\n" + " System.out.println(\"Encryption code = \" + new String(cipher.encoder));\n" + " System.out.println(\"Decryption code = \" + new String(cipher.decoder));\n" + " String message = \"THE EAGLE IS IN PLAY; MEET AT JOE'S.\";\n" + " String coded = cipher.encrypt(message);\n" + " System.out.println(\"Secret: \" + coded);\n" + " String answer = cipher.decrypt(coded);\n" + " System.out.println(\"Message: \" + answer); // should be plaintext again\n" + " }\n" + "}\n"; final String subst = ""; final Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(regex); final Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(string); // The substituted value will be contained in the result variable final String result = matcher.replaceFirst(subst); System.out.println("Substitution result: " + result); } }

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