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

/
/
gU

Test String

Code Generator

Language

Generated Code

# coding=utf8 # the above tag defines encoding for this document and is for Python 2.x compatibility import re regex = r"<article(?: class=\"lead\")?><a href=\".*\" target=\"_top\"><img(?: height=\".*\")? src=\"(.*)\"(?: width=\".*\")? \/><\/a><h[1,2]><a href=\"(.*)\" target=\"_top\">(.*)<\/a><\/h[1,2]><small>By .*<\/small><small>Updated: (.*) - (.*)<\/small><div class=\"clear\"><\/div><\/article>" test_str = "<section class=\"news\"><article class=\"lead\"><a href=\"/2016/04/15/what-are-the-10-most-intriguing-games-of-the-2016-nfl-season/a6ikhoo/\" target=\"_top\"><img src=\"/_internal/cimg!0/8p7xcgnjxaoqjj4iwxfv1qlid4ag0mm\" /></a><h1><a href=\"/2016/04/15/what-are-the-10-most-intriguing-games-of-the-2016-nfl-season/a6ikhoo/\" target=\"_top\">What are the 10 most intriguing games of the 2016 NFL season?</a></h1><small>By NATE ATKINS and ARTHUR ARKUSH</small><small>Updated: April 15, 2016 - 9:08 am</small><div class=\"clear\"></div></article><div class=\"clear\"></div></section><div class=\"bigbox ad\"></div><section class=\"news secondary\"><article><a href=\"/2016/04/08/green-bay-packers-cut-ilb-nate-palmer-10-game-starter-in-2015/afybdi5/\" target=\"_top\"><img height=\"225\" src=\"/_internal/cimg!0/pes2uiv39y78ld1yezq38oqcz3invi8\" width=\"400\" /></a><h2><a href=\"/2016/04/08/green-bay-packers-cut-ilb-nate-palmer-10-game-starter-in-2015/afybdi5/\" target=\"_top\">Green Bay Packers cut ILB Nate Palmer, 10-game starter in 2015</a></h2><small>By ARTHUR ARKUSH -- aarkush@profootballweekly.com</small><small>Updated: April 8, 2016 - 4:01 pm</small><div class=\"clear\"></div></article><article><a href=\"/2016/04/08/jacksonville-jaguars-aaron-colvin-and-green-bay-packers-demetri-goodson-suspended-4-games-each-for-peds/ahkwuh8/\" target=\"_top\"><img height=\"225\" src=\"/_internal/cimg!0/5jn3lvqyt16zr6tg7yqrhsavrr3eh45\" width=\"400\" /></a><h2><a href=\"/2016/04/08/jacksonville-jaguars-aaron-colvin-and-green-bay-packers-demetri-goodson-suspended-4-games-each-for-peds/ahkwuh8/\" target=\"_top\">Jacksonville Jaguars' Aaron Colvin and Green Bay Packers' Demetri Goodson suspended 4 games each for PEDs</a></h2><small>By ARTHUR ARKUSH -- aarkush@profootballweekly.com</small><small>Updated: April 8, 2016 - 3:23 pm</small><div class=\"clear\"></div></article></section>" matches = re.finditer(regex, test_str) for matchNum, match in enumerate(matches, start=1): print ("Match {matchNum} was found at {start}-{end}: {match}".format(matchNum = matchNum, start = match.start(), end = match.end(), match = match.group())) for groupNum in range(0, len(match.groups())): groupNum = groupNum + 1 print ("Group {groupNum} found at {start}-{end}: {group}".format(groupNum = groupNum, start = match.start(groupNum), end = match.end(groupNum), group = match.group(groupNum))) # Note: for Python 2.7 compatibility, use ur"" to prefix the regex and u"" to prefix the test string and substitution.

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 Python, please visit: https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html