Regular Expressions 101

Save & Share

Flavor

  • PCRE2 (PHP >=7.3)
  • PCRE (PHP <7.3)
  • ECMAScript (JavaScript)
  • Python
  • Golang
  • Java 8
  • .NET 7.0 (C#)
  • Rust
  • Regex Flavor Guide

Function

  • Match
  • Substitution
  • List
  • Unit Tests

Tools

Sponsors
There are currently no sponsors. Become a sponsor today!
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"
"
gm

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 = "(\\sdoi: 10\\.\\d{1,50}/\\S+\\..)"; final String string = "Reliability and validity of the French version of the global physical activity questionnaire.\",\"/pubmed/30356654\",\"Rivière F, Widad FZ, Speyer E, Erpelding ML, Escalon H, Vuillemin A.\",\"J Sport Health Sci. 2018 Jul;7(3):339-345. doi: 10.1016/j.jshs.2016.08.004. Epub 2016 Aug 15.\",\"J Sport Health Sci. 2018\",\"PubMed\",\"citation\",\"PMID:30356654 | PMCID:PMC6189276\",\"pubmed\",\"30356654\",\"create date:2018/10/26 | first author:Rivière F\n" + "jbfkjezfkzjbkzvf doi: 10.3390/pharmaceutics8020011.\",\"Pharmaceutics.\n" + "khfkefkzefhzfe doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.8210.\",\"Oncotarget.\n" + "jkkgkg doi: 10.3390/molecules21091123.\",\"Molecules.\n" + "(3). pii: E27. doi: 10.3390/pharmacy4030027.\",\"Pharmacy (Basel). 2016\",\"PubMed\",\"citation\",\"PMID:28970400 | PMCID:PMC5419365\",\"pubmed\",\"28970400\",\"create date:2017/10/04 | first author:Atkinson J\",\n" + "63(2):175-183. doi: 10.1093/cz/zow048. Epub 2016 Apr 22.\",\"Curr Zool. 2017\",\"PubMed\",\"citation\",\"PMID:29491975 | PMCID:PMC5804161\",\"pubmed\",\"29491975\",\"create date:2018/03/02 | first author:Colchen T\",\n" + "51:209-216. doi: 10.1515/hukin-2015-0184. eCollection 2016 Jun 1.\",\"J Hum Kinet. 2016\",\"PubMed\",\"citation\",\"PMID:28149384 | PMCID:PMC5260564\",\"pubmed\",\"28149384\",\"create date:2017/02/06 | first author:Rouis M\",\n" + "11(12):e0168349. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0168349. eCollection 2016.\",\"PLoS One. 2016\",\"PubMed\",\"citation\",\"PMID:28036335 | PMCID:PMC5201304\",\"pubmed\",\"28036335\",\"create date:2016/12/31 | first author:Huttin O\",\n" + "14(9):1124-1137. doi: 10.1080/15476286.2016.1251543. Epub 2016 Oct 28. Review.\",\"RNA Biol. 2017\",\"PubMed\",\"citation\",\"PMID:27791472 | PMCID:PMC5699547\",\"pubmed\",\"27791472\",\"create date:2016/10/30 | first author:Schwartz S\",\n" + "66(1):39-47. doi: 10.1016/j.jhep.2016.08.021. Epub 2016 Sep 10.\",\"J Hepatol. 2017\",\"PubMed\",\"citation\",\"PMID:27622858\",\"pubmed\",\"27622858\",\"create date:2016/09/14 | first author:Pol S\","; final Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(regex, Pattern.MULTILINE); 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