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
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  • 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

r"
"
gm

Test String

Substitution

Processing...

Code Generator

Generated Code

use strict; my $str = 'Here’s an extended version of the previous explanation, now including **problem definitions**, **approaches**, and **examples** for each interval problem: --- ### 1. **Basic Interval Problems** #### a) **Finding Overlaps Between Two Intervals** - **Problem Definition**: Given two intervals, determine if they overlap. Two intervals overlap if they share at least one point in common. - **Approach**: - Check if the start of one interval is before the end of the other and vice versa. - **Example**: - Interval A = [1, 5], Interval B = [4, 9]. - Output: True (they overlap). ```python def do_intervals_overlap(interval1, interval2): return interval1[0] <= interval2[1] and interval2[0] <= interval1[1] # Example interval1 = [1, 5] interval2 = [4, 9] print(do_intervals_overlap(interval1, interval2)) # True ``` #### b) **Union of Two Intervals** - **Problem Definition**: Given two intervals, return the union of the intervals if they overlap or are adjacent. If they do not overlap, return both intervals. - **Approach**: - If the intervals overlap, return the minimum start and maximum end of the two intervals. - **Example**: - Interval A = [1, 5], Interval B = [4, 9]. - Output: [1, 9]. ```python def union_intervals(interval1, interval2): if do_intervals_overlap(interval1, interval2): return [min(interval1[0], interval2[0]), max(interval1[1], interval2[1])] return [interval1, interval2] # Example print(union_intervals([1, 5], [4, 9])) # [1, 9] ``` #### c) **Intersection of Two Intervals** - **Problem Definition**: Find the intersection of two intervals. The intersection is the range that is covered by both intervals. - **Approach**: - If the intervals overlap, the intersection is the maximum of the start points and the minimum of the end points. - **Example**: - Interval A = [1, 5], Interval B = [3, 9]. - Output: [3, 5]. ```python def intersection_intervals(interval1, interval2): if do_intervals_overlap(interval1, interval2): return [max(interval1[0], interval2[0]), min(interval1[1], interval2[1])] return None # Example print(intersection_intervals([1, 5], [3, 9])) # [3, 5] ``` --- ### 2. **Multiple Intervals Problems** #### a) **Merging Overlapping Intervals** - **Problem Definition**: Given a set of intervals, merge all the overlapping ones. - **Approach**: - Sort the intervals by their start time, then iterate through them and merge overlapping intervals. - **Example**: - Intervals = [[1, 5], [2, 6], [8, 10]]. - Output: [[1, 6], [8, 10]]. ```python def merge_intervals(intervals): intervals.sort(key=lambda x: x[0]) merged = [intervals[0]] for i in range(1, len(intervals)): if merged[-1][1] >= intervals[i][0]: merged[-1][1] = max(merged[-1][1], intervals[i][1]) else: merged.append(intervals[i]) return merged # Example print(merge_intervals([[1, 5], [2, 6], [8, 10]])) # [[1, 6], [8, 10]] ``` #### b) **Finding Gaps Between Intervals** - **Problem Definition**: Given a set of intervals, find the gaps where no interval exists. - **Approach**: - Sort intervals by start time. Identify gaps by checking the end of one interval and the start of the next. - **Example**: - Intervals = [[1, 5], [7, 10]]. - Output: [5, 7]. ```python def find_gaps(intervals): intervals.sort(key=lambda x: x[0]) gaps = [] for i in range(1, len(intervals)): if intervals[i][0] > intervals[i-1][1]: gaps.append([intervals[i-1][1], intervals[i][0]]) return gaps # Example print(find_gaps([[1, 5], [7, 10]])) # [[5, 7]] ``` --- ### 3. **Complex Interval Operations** #### a) **Interval Difference** - **Problem Definition**: Given two intervals, find the difference between them, i.e., the part of the first interval that does not overlap with the second. - **Approach**: - If the intervals overlap, return the non-overlapping portions of the first interval. - **Example**: - Interval A = [1, 10], Interval B = [5, 7]. - Output: [[1, 5], [7, 10]]. ```python def interval_difference(A, B): if not do_intervals_overlap(A, B): return [A] # No overlap result = [] if A[0] < B[0]: result.append([A[0], B[0]]) if A[1] > B[1]: result.append([B[1], A[1]]) return result # Example print(interval_difference([1, 10], [5, 7])) # [[1, 5], [7, 10]] ``` #### b) **Interval Scheduling** - **Problem Definition**: Given a set of intervals, find the maximum number of non-overlapping intervals that can be selected. - **Approach**: - Sort intervals by end time. Greedily select intervals that do not overlap with the previously selected one. - **Example**: - Intervals = [[1, 3], [2, 4], [3, 5]]. - Output: [[1, 3], [3, 5]]. ```python def interval_scheduling(intervals): intervals.sort(key=lambda x: x[1]) # Sort by end times result = [] last_end = float(\'-inf\') for interval in intervals: if interval[0] >= last_end: result.append(interval) last_end = interval[1] return result # Example print(interval_scheduling([[1, 3], [2, 4], [3, 5]])) # [[1, 3], [3, 5]] ``` --- ### 4. **Advanced Interval Challenges** #### a) **Finding the Smallest Range Covering All Points** - **Problem Definition**: Given several lists of intervals, find the smallest range that includes at least one interval from each list. - **Approach**: - Use a sliding window and min-heap to track the smallest range covering all lists. - **Example**: - Lists = [[1, 5], [6, 9], [7, 10]]. - Output: (6, 7). ```python import heapq def smallest_range(lists): min_heap = [] max_val = float(\'-inf\') # Add the first element of each list to the heap for i, l in enumerate(lists): heapq.heappush(min_heap, (l[0], i, 0)) max_val = max(max_val, l[0]) min_range = float(\'inf\'), None, None while min_heap: min_val, list_idx, element_idx = heapq.heappop(min_heap) if max_val - min_val < min_range[0]: min_range = (max_val - min_val, min_val, max_val) if element_idx + 1 == len(lists[list_idx]): break # We\'ve reached the end of one list next_val = lists[list_idx][element_idx + 1] max_val = max(max_val, next_val) heapq.heappush(min_heap, (next_val, list_idx, element_idx + 1)) return min_range[1], min_range[2] # Example lists = [[1, 5], [6, 9], [7, 10]] print(smallest_range(lists)) # (6, 7) ``` #### b) **K-Interval Coverage** - **Problem Definition**: Given a set of intervals and an integer `k`, find the maximum number of intervals that cover any point or range. - **Approach**: - Sort events (start and end of intervals), track the number of overlapping intervals at each event, and find the maximum count. - **Example**: - Intervals = [[1, 4], [2, 6], [3, 8]], k = 2. - Output: 2. ```python def max_k_interval_coverage(intervals, k): points = [] for interval in intervals: points.append(( interval[0], \'start\')) points.append((interval[1], \'end\')) points.sort() coverage = 0 max_coverage = 0 for point, kind in points: if kind == \'start\': coverage += 1 if coverage == k: max_coverage = max(max_coverage, coverage) else: coverage -= 1 return max_coverage # Example print(max_k_interval_coverage([[1, 4], [2, 6], [3, 8]], 2)) # 2 ``` --- ### 5. **Geometric Interval Problems** #### a) **Rectangle Intersection via Intervals** - **Problem Definition**: Given two rectangles, where each rectangle is defined by two intervals (x-axis and y-axis), find the intersection of these rectangles. - **Approach**: - Find the intersection of intervals on both x and y axes. The intersection of two rectangles is the combination of the intersecting intervals on both axes. - **Example**: - Rectangle A = ([1, 5], [2, 6]), Rectangle B = ([3, 7], [4, 9]). - Output: [[3, 5], [4, 6]]. ```python def rectangle_intersection(A, B): x_intersect = intersection_intervals([A[0][0], A[0][1]], [B[0][0], B[0][1]]) y_intersect = intersection_intervals([A[1][0], A[1][1]], [B[1][0], B[1][1]]) if x_intersect and y_intersect: return [x_intersect, y_intersect] return None # Example A = ([1, 5], [2, 6]) B = ([3, 7], [4, 9]) print(rectangle_intersection(A, B)) # [[3, 5], [4, 6]] ``` --- This version includes **problem definitions**, **approaches**, and **examples** for all the interval problems, along with code implementations. Each section is structured to make it easier to understand and apply to similar problems.'; my $regex = qr/\#(.*?)\*\*(.*?)\*\*/mp; my $subst = '\\#\\1\\2'; my $result = $str =~ s/$regex/$subst/rg; print "The result of the substitution is' $result\n";

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 Perl, please visit: http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html