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

/
/
gm

Test String

Code Generator

Language

Generated Code

$re = '/\b[A-Z][a-z]+\b\s+\b[A-Z][a-z]+\b/m'; $str = '54. Mikhail Stepanovich ZUSKO (Михаил Степанович ЗУСЬКО) Function: Russian military leader – Lieutenant- General Chief of staff of the “West” grouping Former Commander of the 58th Combined Arms Army of the Southern Military District DOB: 24.5.1972 POB: Vetly, Volyn region, former Ukrainian SSR (now Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Gender: male Associated entities: Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation 55. Mikhail Yuryevich TEPLINSKIY (Михаил Юрьевич ТЕПЛИНСКИЙ) Function: Russian military leader – Colonel-General Commander of Airborne Forces of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation DOB: 9.1.1969 POB: Mospino, Donetsk oblast, former Ukrainian SSR (now Ukraine) Nationality: Russian Gender: male Associated entities: Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation 56. Nikolay Mikhailovich PARSHIN (Николай Михайлович ПАРШИН) Function: Russian military leader – Lieutenant- General Head of the Main Rocket and Artillery Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation DOB: 20.12.1962 POB: The village of Mordovskoye- Kolomasovo, former Mordovian ASSR (now Russian Federation) Nationality: Russian Gender: male Associated entities: Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation 57. Oleg Yurievich TSOKOV (Олег Юрьевич ЦОКОВ) Function: Russian military leader – Major-General Commander of the 144th Motor Rifle Division of the 20th Combined Arms Army of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation DOB: 23.9.1971 POB: former USSR (now Russian Federation) Nationality: Russian Gender: male Associated entities: Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation 58. Ramil Rakhmatulovich IBATULLIN (Рамиль Рахматуллович ИБАТУЛЛИН) Function: Russian military leader – Major-General Commander of the 90th Guards Tank Division DOB: 22.10.1976 POB: Bagishevo, Apastovsky District, Tatarstan, former USSR (now Russian Federation) Nationality: Russian Gender: male Associated entities: Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation 59. Sergey Viktorovich KARAKAEV (Сергей Викторович КАРАКАЕВ) Function: Russian military leader – Colonel-General Commander of the Strategic Missile Forces DOB: 4.6.1961 POB: The village of Ivano-Slyusarevka, Krasnodar Territory, former USSR (now Russian Federation) Nationality: Russian Gender: male Associated entities: Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation SHEN, Weisheng, Zhejiang, China; (a.k.a "Shen shen") DOB 01 Nov 1957; POB Haimen, China; nationality China; Additional Sanctions Information - Subject to Secondary Sanctions; Gender Male; Passport G23381737 (China) issued 13 Jun 2007 expires 12 Jun 2017; National ID No. 330103195711011317 (China) (individual) [NPWMD] [IFSR] (Linked To: ZHEJIANG QINGJI IND. CO., LTD). WEI, Zunyi (a.k.a. WEI, Zun Yi; a.k.a. "WEI, David"), Beijing, China; DOB 20 Dec 1975; POB Shandong, China; nationality China; Additional Sanctions Information - Subject to Secondary Sanctions; Gender Male; Passport EE1650028 (China) issued 28 Aug 2018 expires 27 Aug 2028; National ID No. 370922197512201811 (China) (individual) [NPWMD] [IFSR] (Linked To: HONG KONG KE.DO INTERNATIONAL TRADE CO., LIMITED). '; 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