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

/
/
g

Test String

Code Generator

Language

Generated Code

# coding=utf8 # the above tag defines encoding for this document and is for Python 2.x compatibility import re regex = r"^<row Id=\"([^\"]*)\" PostTypeId=\"([^\"]*)\" ParentId=\"([^\"]*)\" CreationDate=\"([^\"]*)\" Score=\"([^\"]*)\" Body=\"([^\"]*)\" OwnerUserId=\"([^\"]*)\" LastEditorUserId=\"([^\"]*)\" LastEditorDisplayName=\"([^\"]*)\" LastEditDate=\"([^\"]*)\" LastActivityDate=\"([^\"]*)\" CommentCount=\"([^\"]*)\"?.*$>" test_str = "<row Id=\"1394\" PostTypeId=\"2\" ParentId=\"1390\" CreationDate=\"2008-08-04T16:38:03.667\" Score=\"16\" Body=\"&lt;p&gt;Not sure how credible &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.builderau.com.au/program/windows/soa/Getting-started-with-Windows-Server-2008-Core-edition/0,339024644,339288700,00.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;this source is&lt;/a&gt;, but:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA;&#xA;&lt;blockquote&gt;&#xA; &lt;p&gt;The Windows Server 2008 Core edition can:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA; &#xA; &lt;ul&gt;&#xA; &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Run the file server role.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA; &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Run the Hyper-V virtualization server role.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA; &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Run the Directory Services role.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA; &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Run the DHCP server role.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA; &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Run the IIS Web server role.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA; &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Run the DNS server role.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA; &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Run Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA; &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Run the print server role.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA; &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA; &#xA; &lt;p&gt;The Windows Server 2008 Core edition cannot:&lt;/p&gt;&#xA; &#xA; &lt;ul&gt;&#xA; &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Run a SQL Server.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA; &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Run an Exchange Server.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA; &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Run Internet Explorer.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA; &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Run Windows Explorer.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA; &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Host a remote desktop session.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA; &lt;li&gt;&lt;p&gt;Run MMC snap-in consoles locally.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&#xA; &lt;/ul&gt;&#xA;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&#xA;\" OwnerUserId=\"91\" LastEditorUserId=\"1\" LastEditorDisplayName=\"Jeff Atwood\" LastEditDate=\"2008-08-27T13:02:50.273\" LastActivityDate=\"2008-08-27T13:02:50.273\" CommentCount=\"1\" /> " matches = re.finditer(regex, test_str) for matchNum, match in enumerate(matches, start=1): print ("Match {matchNum} was found at {start}-{end}: {match}".format(matchNum = matchNum, start = match.start(), end = match.end(), match = match.group())) for groupNum in range(0, len(match.groups())): groupNum = groupNum + 1 print ("Group {groupNum} found at {start}-{end}: {group}".format(groupNum = groupNum, start = match.start(groupNum), end = match.end(groupNum), group = match.group(groupNum))) # Note: for Python 2.7 compatibility, use ur"" to prefix the regex and u"" to prefix the test string and substitution.

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 Python, please visit: https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html