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

import java.util.regex.Matcher; import java.util.regex.Pattern; public class Example { public static void main(String[] args) { final String regex = "(1(\\s|-)?)?(\\+\\d{1,3}\\s?)?((\\(\\d{3}\\)\\s?)|(\\d{3})(\\s|-?))(\\d{3}(\\s|-?))(\\d{4})(\\s?(([E|e]xt[:|.|]?)|x|X)(\\s?\\d+))?"; final String string = "/* Regular local phone number (XXX) XXX-XXXX */\n" + "1231231231\n" + "123-1231231\n" + "123123-1231\n" + "123-123 1231\n" + "123 123-1231\n" + "123-123-1231\n" + "(123)123-1231\n" + "(123)123 1231\n" + "(123) 123-1231\n" + "(123) 123 1231\n" + "1(212)2231141\n" + "1 232 442 1123\n" + "1-233-223-4433\n" + "12232234433\n" + "1(732) 1131131\n\n" + "/* International codes +XXX (XXX) XXX-XXXX */\n" + "+99 1234567890\n" + "+991234567890\n\n" + "/* Extensions (XXX) XXX-XXXX Ext. XXX... */\n" + "1234567890 Ext 1123123\n" + "1234567890Ext 1123123\n" + "1234567890 Ext1123123\n" + "1234567890Ext1123123\n\n" + "1234567890 Ext: 1123123\n" + "1234567890Ext: 1123123\n" + "1234567890 Ext:1123123\n" + "1234567890Ext:1123123\n\n" + "1234567890 Ext. 1123123\n" + "1234567890Ext. 1123123\n" + "1234567890 Ext.1123123\n" + "1234567890Ext.1123123\n\n" + "1234567890 ext 1123123\n" + "1234567890ext 1123123\n" + "1234567890 ext1123123\n" + "1234567890ext1123123\n\n" + "1234567890 ext: 1123123\n" + "1234567890ext: 1123123\n" + "1234567890 ext:1123123\n" + "1234567890ext:1123123\n\n" + "1234567890 X 1123123\n" + "1234567890X1123123\n" + "1234567890X 1123123\n" + "1234567890 X1123123\n" + "1234567890 x 1123123\n" + "1234567890x1123123\n" + "1234567890 x1123123\n" + "1234567890x 1123123"; 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