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

r"
"
mg

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 = "(?P<url>https?://(?:(?:www|forums)\\.aeva\\.asn\\.au/forums|forums\\.aeva\\.asn\\.au)[^\\s\\\"<]+)"; final String string = "Examples of URL patterns (cross linking the AEVA forum) that need conversion\n" + "============================================================================\n\n" + "Thread ID: 756\n" + "http://www.aeva.asn.au/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=132&KW=\n\n" + "Thread ID: 1667\n" + "http://www.aeva.asn.au/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=270\n\n\n" + "Thread ID: 1959\n" + "http://www.aeva.asn.au/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=316&PID=1958#1958\n\n" + "Thread ID: 1427\n" + "http://www.aeva.asn.au/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=65&KW=&PID=646#646\n\n\n" + "Thread ID: 1997\n" + "http://www.aeva.asn.au/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=161&PN=1\n\n" + "Thread ID: \n\n\n" + "Thread ID: \n\n\n" + "Thread ID: \n\n\n" + "Thread ID: \n\n\n" + "Thread ID: \n\n\n" + "Thread ID: \n\n\n\n" + "Probably ignore these patterns, not many of them...\n" + "===================================================\n" + "Thread ID: 8573\n" + "<img src=\"http://www.aeva.asn.au/forums/smileys/smiley4.gif\" border=\"0\" />\n\n" + "Thread ID: 4845\n" + "http://www.aeva.asn.au/forums/smileys/smiley18.gif\n\n\n" + "Hi Andrew, \n" + "<br />I cant for the life of me see how to PM. Is it enabled?\n" + "<br />\n" + "<br />Anyway, here are the conversations I started that could be re-clasified if you get a chance.\n" + "<br />\n" + "<br />Cheers,\n" + "<br />Mal.\n" + "<br />\n" + "<br />Media\n" + "<br />\n" + "<br />http://www.aeva.asn.au/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=143&KW=\n" + "<br />\n" + "<br />\n" + "<br />Parts and Suppliers\n" + "<br />\n" + "<br />http://www.aeva.asn.au/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=132&KW=\n" + "<br />http://www.aeva.asn.au/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=128&KW=\n" + "<br />http://www.aeva.asn.au/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=113&KW=\n" + "<br />http://www.aeva.asn.au/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=116&KW="; 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