Regular Expressions 101

Save & Share

  • Regex Version: ver. 3
  • Update Regex
    ctrl+⇧+s
  • Save new Regex
    ctrl+s
  • Add to Community Library

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

/
/
mg

Test String

Code Generator

Language

Generated Code

$re = '/<span class=\"historyDash\">-<\/span>\s*((?:[^\<]|\n)*?)\s*<\/div>/m'; $str = ' <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> <html> <head> <title>Steam Community :: TripleThreat :: Persona name history</title> <link href="http://steamcommunity-a.akamaihd.net/public/shared/css/motiva_sans.css?v=F3z3QpekjE2f" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" > <link href="http://steamcommunity-a.akamaihd.net/public/shared/css/buttons.css?v=LNGz0aQrH--g" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" > <link href="http://steamcommunity-a.akamaihd.net/public/shared/css/shared_global.css?v=DOYfTk4evOTc" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" > <link href="http://steamcommunity-a.akamaihd.net/public/css/globalv2.css?v=RLlF4NbPEL4H" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" > <link href="http://steamcommunity-a.akamaihd.net/public/css/skin_1/global.css?v=gY3Z5G6712K3&amp;client=0" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" > <link href="http://steamcommunity-a.akamaihd.net/public/css/skin_1/group_history.css?v=8TYZeQAleI4j" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" > <link href="http://steamcommunity-a.akamaihd.net/public/css/skin_1/header.css?v=z3WBKGTLlnCN" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" > <script> (function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i[\'GoogleAnalyticsObject\']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){ (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o), m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m) })(window,document,\'script\',\'//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js\',\'ga\'); ga(\'create\', \'UA-33779068-1\', \'auto\', { \'sampleRate\': 0.4 }); ga(\'set\', \'dimension1\', false ); ga(\'set\', \'dimension2\', \'External\' ); ga(\'set\', \'dimension3\', \'profiles\' ); ga(\'set\', \'dimension4\', "profiles\\/namehistory" ); ga(\'send\', \'pageview\'); </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://steamcommunity-a.akamaihd.net/public/javascript/prototype-1.7.js?v=.55t44gwuwgvw"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://steamcommunity-a.akamaihd.net/public/javascript/scriptaculous/_combined.js?v=9XVsa_Ni33oN&amp;l=english&amp;load=effects,controls,slider,dragdrop"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://steamcommunity-a.akamaihd.net/public/javascript/global.js?v=VblJ8Wqm5w5i&amp;l=english"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://steamcommunity-a.akamaihd.net/public/javascript/jquery-1.11.1.min.js?v=.isFTSRckeNhC"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://steamcommunity-a.akamaihd.net/public/shared/javascript/tooltip.js?v=._0UFXFGgvme-"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://steamcommunity-a.akamaihd.net/public/shared/javascript/shared_global.js?v=pU8RP8XZB6Hb&amp;l=english"></script> <script type="text/javascript">$J = jQuery.noConflict(); if ( typeof JSON != \'object\' || !JSON.stringify || !JSON.parse ) { document.write( "<scr" + "ipt type=\\"text\\/javascript\\" src=\\"http:\\/\\/steamcommunity-a.akamaihd.net\\/public\\/javascript\\/json2.js?v=pmScf4470EZP&amp;l=english\\"><\\/script>\\n" ); }; </script></head> <body> <center> <!-- header bar, contains info browsing user if logged in --> <div id="global_header"> <div class="content"> <div class="logo"> <span id="logo_holder"> <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/"> <img src="http://steamcommunity-a.akamaihd.net/public/shared/images/header/globalheader_logo.png" width="176" height="44"> </a> </span> <!--[if lt IE 7]> <style type="text/css"> #logo_holder img { filter:progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Alpha(opacity=0); } #logo_holder { display: inline-block; width: 176px; height: 44px; filter:progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaImageLoader(src=\'http://steamcommunity-a.akamaihd.net/public/images/v5/globalheader_logo.png\'); } </style> <![endif]--> </div> <div class="supernav_container"> <a class="menuitem supernav" href="http://store.steampowered.com/" data-tooltip-type="selector" data-tooltip-content=".submenu_store"> STORE </a> <div class="submenu_store" style="display: none;" data-submenuid="store"> <a class="submenuitem" href="http://store.steampowered.com/">Featured</a> <a class="submenuitem" href="http://store.steampowered.com/explore/">Explore</a> <a class="submenuitem" href="http://store.steampowered.com/curators/">Curators</a> <a class="submenuitem" href="http://steamcommunity.com/my/wishlist/">Wishlist</a> <a class="submenuitem" href="http://store.steampowered.com/news/">News</a> <a class="submenuitem" href="http://store.steampowered.com/stats/">Stats</a> </div> <a class="menuitem supernav" style="display: block" href="http://steamcommunity.com/" data-tooltip-type="selector" data-tooltip-content=".submenu_community"> COMMUNITY </a> <div class="submenu_community" style="display: none;" data-submenuid="community"> <a class="submenuitem" href="http://steamcommunity.com/">Home</a> <a class="submenuitem" href="http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/">Discussions</a> <a class="submenuitem" href="http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/">Workshop</a> <a class="submenuitem" href="http://steamcommunity.com/greenlight/">Greenlight</a> <a class="submenuitem" href="http://steamcommunity.com/market/">Market</a> <a class="submenuitem" href="http://steamcommunity.com/?subsection=broadcasts">Broadcasts</a> </div> <a class="menuitem" href="http://store.steampowered.com/about/"> ABOUT </a> <a class="menuitem" href="https://help.steampowered.com/en/"> SUPPORT </a> </div> <script type="text/javascript"> jQuery(function($) { $(\'.tooltip\').v_tooltip(); $(\'#global_header .supernav\').v_tooltip({\'location\':\'bottom\', \'tooltipClass\': \'supernav_content\', \'offsetY\':-4, \'offsetX\': 1, \'horizontalSnap\': 4, \'tooltipParent\': \'#global_header .supernav_container\', \'correctForScreenSize\': false}); }); </script> <div id="global_actions"> <div id="global_action_menu"> <div class="header_installsteam_btn header_installsteam_btn_green"> <div class="header_installsteam_btn_leftcap"></div> <div class="header_installsteam_btn_rightcap"></div> <a class="header_installsteam_btn_content" href="http://store.steampowered.com/about/"> Install Steam </a> </div> <a class="global_action_link" href="https://steamcommunity.com/login/home/?goto=id%2FTripleThreat%2Fnamehistory">login</a> &nbsp;|&nbsp; <span class="pulldown global_action_link" id="language_pulldown" onclick="ShowMenu( this, \'language_dropdown\', \'right\' );">language</span> <div class="popup_block_new" id="language_dropdown" style="display: none;"> <div class="popup_body popup_menu"> <a class="popup_menu_item tight" href="?l=bulgarian" onclick="ChangeLanguage( \'bulgarian\' ); return false;">Български (Bulgarian)</a> <a class="popup_menu_item tight" href="?l=czech" onclick="ChangeLanguage( \'czech\' ); return false;">čeština (Czech)</a> <a class="popup_menu_item tight" href="?l=danish" onclick="ChangeLanguage( \'danish\' ); return false;">Dansk (Danish)</a> <a class="popup_menu_item tight" href="?l=dutch" onclick="ChangeLanguage( \'dutch\' ); return false;">Nederlands (Dutch)</a> <a class="popup_menu_item tight" href="?l=finnish" onclick="ChangeLanguage( \'finnish\' ); return false;">Suomi (Finnish)</a> <a class="popup_menu_item tight" href="?l=french" onclick="ChangeLanguage( \'french\' ); return false;">Français (French)</a> <a class="popup_menu_item tight" href="?l=german" onclick="ChangeLanguage( \'german\' ); return false;">Deutsch (German)</a> <a class="popup_menu_item tight" href="?l=greek" onclick="ChangeLanguage( \'greek\' ); return false;">Ελληνικά (Greek)</a> <a class="popup_menu_item tight" href="?l=hungarian" onclick="ChangeLanguage( \'hungarian\' ); return false;">Magyar (Hungarian)</a> <a class="popup_menu_item tight" href="?l=italian" onclick="ChangeLanguage( \'italian\' ); return false;">Italiano (Italian)</a> <a class="popup_menu_item tight" href="?l=japanese" onclick="ChangeLanguage( \'japanese\' ); return false;">日本語 (Japanese)</a> <a class="popup_menu_item tight" href="?l=koreana" onclick="ChangeLanguage( \'koreana\' ); return false;">한국어 (Korean)</a> <a class="popup_menu_item tight" href="?l=norwegian" onclick="ChangeLanguage( \'norwegian\' ); return false;">Norsk (Norwegian)</a> <a class="popup_menu_item tight" href="?l=polish" onclick="ChangeLanguage( \'polish\' ); return false;">Polski (Polish)</a> <a class="popup_menu_item tight" href="?l=portuguese" onclick="ChangeLanguage( \'portuguese\' ); return false;">Português (Portuguese)</a> <a class="popup_menu_item tight" href="?l=brazilian" onclick="ChangeLanguage( \'brazilian\' ); return false;">Português-Brasil (Portuguese-Brazil)</a> <a class="popup_menu_item tight" href="?l=romanian" onclick="ChangeLanguage( \'romanian\' ); return false;">Română (Romanian)</a> <a class="popup_menu_item tight" href="?l=russian" onclick="ChangeLanguage( \'russian\' ); return false;">Русский (Russian)</a> <a class="popup_menu_item tight" href="?l=schinese" onclick="ChangeLanguage( \'schinese\' ); return false;">简体中文 (Simplified Chinese)</a> <a class="popup_menu_item tight" href="?l=spanish" onclick="ChangeLanguage( \'spanish\' ); return false;">Español (Spanish)</a> <a class="popup_menu_item tight" href="?l=swedish" onclick="ChangeLanguage( \'swedish\' ); return false;">Svenska (Swedish)</a> <a class="popup_menu_item tight" href="?l=tchinese" onclick="ChangeLanguage( \'tchinese\' ); return false;">繁體中文 (Traditional Chinese)</a> <a class="popup_menu_item tight" href="?l=thai" onclick="ChangeLanguage( \'thai\' ); return false;">ไทย (Thai)</a> <a class="popup_menu_item tight" href="?l=turkish" onclick="ChangeLanguage( \'turkish\' ); return false;">Türkçe (Turkish)</a> <a class="popup_menu_item tight" href="?l=ukrainian" onclick="ChangeLanguage( \'ukrainian\' ); return false;">Українська (Ukrainian)</a> <a class="popup_menu_item tight" href="http://translation.steampowered.com" target="_blank">Help us translate Steam</a> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div id="modalBG" style="display: none"></div><script type="text/javascript"> g_sessionID = "64b42b79f53030fe530e09fa"; g_steamID = false; // We always want to have the timezone cookie set for PHP to use setTimezoneCookies(); $J( function() { InitMiniprofileHovers(); InitEmoticonHovers(); window.BindCommunityTooltip = function( $Selector ) { $Selector.v_tooltip( {\'tooltipClass\': \'community_tooltip\', \'dataName\': \'communityTooltip\' } ); }; BindCommunityTooltip( $J(\'[data-community-tooltip]\') ); }); $J( function() { InitEconomyHovers( "http:\\/\\/steamcommunity-a.akamaihd.net\\/public\\/css\\/skin_1\\/economy.css?v=k1KbRUnfe-Sy", "http:\\/\\/steamcommunity-a.akamaihd.net\\/public\\/javascript\\/economy_common.js?v=tsXdRVB0yEaR&l=english", "http:\\/\\/steamcommunity-a.akamaihd.net\\/public\\/javascript\\/economy.js?v=KgoJ8nBUSyBe&l=english" );});</script><!-- /header bar --> <div id="mainBody"> <!-- main contents --> <div id="mainContents"> <!-- top content --> <div id="topGroupAvatar"> <div class="mediumHolder_default"><div class="avatarMedium"><a href="http://steamcommunity.com/id/TripleThreat"><img src="http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/avatars/80/809c91ef963bce53195c205066f91babc729e647_medium.jpg" /></a></div></div> </div> <h2>Persona name history</h2> <h1><a id="topNameLink" href="http://steamcommunity.com/id/TripleThreat">TripleThreat</a></h1> <!-- /top content --> <!-- main body --> <br /> <div class="historyItem"> <div class="historyIcon"><img src="http://steamcommunity-a.akamaihd.net/public/images/skin_1/HistoryNameChange.gif" width="13" height="12" border="0" /></div> <span class="historyShort">Name Changed</span> <span class="historyDash">-</span> <span class="historyDate">Jul 23 @ 12:15pm</span> <span class="historyDash">-</span> TripleThreat </div> <div class="historyItemb"> <div class="historyIcon"><img src="http://steamcommunity-a.akamaihd.net/public/images/skin_1/HistoryNameChange.gif" width="13" height="12" border="0" /></div> <span class="historyShort">Name Changed</span> <span class="historyDash">-</span> <span class="historyDate">Jul 23 @ 9:21am</span> <span class="historyDash">-</span> [FD] TripleThreat.blyat </div> <div class="historyItem"> <div class="historyIcon"><img src="http://steamcommunity-a.akamaihd.net/public/images/skin_1/HistoryNameChange.gif" width="13" height="12" border="0" /></div> <span class="historyShort">Name Changed</span> <span class="historyDash">-</span> <span class="historyDate">Jul 23 @ 8:45am</span> <span class="historyDash">-</span> 9 </div> <div class="historyItemb"> <div class="historyIcon"><img src="http://steamcommunity-a.akamaihd.net/public/images/skin_1/HistoryNameChange.gif" width="13" height="12" border="0" /></div> <span class="historyShort">Name Changed</span> <span class="historyDash">-</span> <span class="historyDate">Jul 23 @ 8:45am</span> <span class="historyDash">-</span> 7 </div> <div class="historyItem"> <div class="historyIcon"><img src="http://steamcommunity-a.akamaihd.net/public/images/skin_1/HistoryNameChange.gif" width="13" height="12" border="0" /></div> <span class="historyShort">Name Changed</span> <span class="historyDash">-</span> <span class="historyDate">Jul 23 @ 8:45am</span> <span class="historyDash">-</span> 5 </div> <div class="historyItemb"> <div class="historyIcon"><img src="http://steamcommunity-a.akamaihd.net/public/images/skin_1/HistoryNameChange.gif" width="13" height="12" border="0" /></div> <span class="historyShort">Name Changed</span> <span class="historyDash">-</span> <span class="historyDate">Jul 23 @ 8:45am</span> <span class="historyDash">-</span> 3 </div> <div class="historyItem"> <div class="historyIcon"><img src="http://steamcommunity-a.akamaihd.net/public/images/skin_1/HistoryNameChange.gif" width="13" height="12" border="0" /></div> <span class="historyShort">Name Changed</span> <span class="historyDash">-</span> <span class="historyDate">Jul 23 @ 8:45am</span> <span class="historyDash">-</span> 1 </div> <div class="historyItemb"> <div class="historyIcon"><img src="http://steamcommunity-a.akamaihd.net/public/images/skin_1/HistoryNameChange.gif" width="13" height="12" border="0" /></div> <span class="historyShort">Name Changed</span> <span class="historyDash">-</span> <span class="historyDate">Jul 22 @ 6:10pm</span> <span class="historyDash">-</span> This is a test </div> <div class="historyItem"> <div class="historyIcon"><img src="http://steamcommunity-a.akamaihd.net/public/images/skin_1/HistoryNameChange.gif" width="13" height="12" border="0" /></div> <span class="historyShort">Name Changed</span> <span class="historyDash">-</span> <span class="historyDate">Jul 14 @ 5:28pm</span> <span class="historyDash">-</span> [FD] TripleThreat </div> <div class="historyItemb"> <div class="historyIcon"><img src="http://steamcommunity-a.akamaihd.net/public/images/skin_1/HistoryNameChange.gif" width="13" height="12" border="0" /></div> <span class="historyShort">Name Changed</span> <span class="historyDash">-</span> <span class="historyDate">Jun 30 @ 5:44pm</span> <span class="historyDash">-</span> admin </div> <br clear="all" /> </div> <br clear="all" /> </div> <!-- footer --> <div id="footer_spacer"></div> <div id="footer_responsive_optin_spacer"></div> <div id="footer"> <div class="footer_content"> <span id="footerLogo"><img src="http://steamcommunity-a.akamaihd.net/public/images/skin_1/footerLogo_valve.png?v=1" width="96" height="26" border="0" alt="Valve Logo" /></span> <span id="footerText"> &copy; Valve Corporation. All rights reserved. All trademarks are property of their respective owners in the US and other countries.<br/>Some geospatial data on this website is provided by <a href="https://steamcommunity.com/linkfilter/?url=http://www.geonames.org" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">geonames.org</a>. <br> <span class="valve_links"> <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/privacy_agreement/" target="_blank">Privacy Policy</a> &nbsp; | &nbsp;<a href="http://www.valvesoftware.com/legal.htm" target="_blank">Legal</a> &nbsp;| &nbsp;<a href="http://store.steampowered.com/subscriber_agreement/" target="_blank">Steam Subscriber Agreement</a> </span> </span> </div> <div class="responsive_optin_link"> <div class="btn_medium btnv6_grey_black" onclick="Responsive_RequestMobileView()"> <span>View mobile website</span> </div> </div> </div> '; preg_match_all($re, $str, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER, 0); // Print the entire match result var_dump($matches);

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 PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php