Regular Expressions 101

Save & Share

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

r"
"
g

Test String

Code Generator

Generated Code

import java.util.regex.Matcher; import java.util.regex.Pattern; public class Example { public static void main(String[] args) { final String regex = "(\\d+)\\s((\\d+)\\s(.*)\\s?(St|Rd|Ave|Dr|Pl|Sq|Ln))\\s?(W|E|N|S)?,\\s(.*),\\s((\\w+)\\s(.*))\\n"; final String string = "1 1067 Niagara Stone Rd, Niagara-On-The-Lake, ON L0S 1J0\n" + "2 4260 Mountainview Rd, Lincoln, ON L0R 1B2\n" + "4 1091 Hutchinson Rd, Haldimand, ON N0A 1K0\n" + "16 3753 Quarry Rd, Lincoln, ON L0R 1B2\n" + "19 131 River Rd, Haldimand, ON N1A 2W3\n" + "20 111 Garrison Village Dr, Niagara-On-The-Lake, ON L0S 1J0\n" + "21 3678 Victoria Ave, Lincoln, ON L0R 2C0\n" + "24 3751 King St, Lincoln, ON L0R 2C0\n" + "34 2878 Holland Rd, Thorold, ON L0S 1E6\n" + "35 103 Overholt Rd, Pelham, ON L0S 1M0\n" + "47 3930 Cherry Ave, Lincoln, ON L0R 1B1\n" + "48 4016 Mountain St, Lincoln, ON L0R 1B7\n" + "49 135 Taylor Rd, Niagara-On-The-Lake, ON L0S 1J0\n" + "50 5943 Sylvia Pl, Niagara Falls, ON L2G 1S9\n" + "51 6863 Lundys Ln, Niagara Falls, ON L2G 1V7\n" + "55 290 John St E, Niagara-On-The-Lake, ON L0S 1J0\n" + "56 5600 King St W, Lincoln, ON L0R 1B3\n" + "63 3900 Cherry Ave, Lincoln, ON L0R 2C0\n" + "64 282 Ridge Rd N, Fort Erie, ON L0S 1N0\n" + "65 4352 Mountainview Rd, Lincoln, ON L0R 1B2\n" + "74 1339 Lakeshore Rd, Niagara-On-The-Lake, ON L0S 1J0\n" + "75 1425 Lakeshore Rd, Niagara-On-The-Lake, ON L0S 1J0\n" + "82 400 Main St W, Grimsby, ON L3M 1T2\n" + "83 3620 Moyer Rd, Lincoln, ON L0R 2C0\n" + "87 1625 Haist St, Pelham, ON L0S 1E0\n" + "91 905 Canborough Rd, Pelham, ON L0S 1C0"; final Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(regex); 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