Regular Expressions 101

Explanation

Pro

Group 1(^|\s+)

1st Alternative^

^start of string

2nd Alternative\s+

\s+any whitespace character, repeated at least once

Group 2(where|were|w)

1st Alternativewhere

wherethe literal text where (case sensitive)

2nd Alternativewere

werethe literal text were (case sensitive)

3rd Alternativew

wthe literal w (119₁₀ / 167₈ / 77₁₆) (case sensitive)

\s*any whitespace character, repeated any number of times

Group 3(are|r)

1st Alternativeare

arethe literal text are (case sensitive)

2nd Alternativer

rthe literal r (114₁₀ / 162₈ / 72₁₆) (case sensitive)

\s*any whitespace character, repeated any number of times

Group 4(you|u)

1st Alternativeyou

youthe literal text you (case sensitive)

2nd Alternativeu

uthe literal u (117₁₀ / 165₈ / 75₁₆) (case sensitive)

(?-i)applies the following effective flags to the remainder of the pattern: g

i modifier: -insensitive. Case-sensitive match

Global pattern flags

g modifier: global. Finds all matches instead of stopping after the first

Detailed match information will be displayed here automatically.

25 tokens

(^|\s+)(where|were|w)\s*(are|r)\s*(you|u)(?-i)

New

w r u
how r u

w r u
how r u