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

Substitution

Processing...

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 = "(?<=\"name\": \")(.+)(\",\\n\\s+\"war_memorials\": \")(.*?\\1,)(.*?)(,.*)(?=\",)"; final String string = "\"properties\": {\n" + " \"cartodb_id\": 2,\n" + " \"sortcode\": 3,\n" + " \"pop2011\": 612431,\n" + " \"pop2002\": 652625,\n" + " \"pop1992\": 681206,\n" + " \"pop1977\": 631918,\n" + " \"pop1966\": 529833,\n" + " \"pop1956\": 483741,\n" + " \"pop1948\": 448964,\n" + " \"regionid\": 3,\n" + " \"countycode\": 38,\n" + " \"countyid\": 3,\n" + " \"region\": \"Sud\",\n" + " \"mnemonic\": \"AG\",\n" + " \"name\": \"Argeș\",\n" + " \"war_memorials\": \"București,132,Alba,145,Brașov,151,Covasna,100,Harghita,188,Mureș,363,Sibiu,165,Bacău,188,Botoșani,149,Iași,246,Neamț,235,Suceava,219,Vaslui,212,Bihor,199,Bistrița-Năsăud,120,Cluj,186,Maramureș,,Satu Mare,119,Sălaj,79,Brăila,47,Buzău,188,Constanța,89,Galați,,Tulcea,87,Vrancea,76,Argeș,252,Călărași,115,Dâmbovița,191,Giurgiu,180,Ialomița,113,Prahova,162,Teleorman,202,Dolj,212,Gorj,154,Mehedinți,110,Olt,163,Vâlcea,185,Arad,233,Caraș-Severin,176,Hunedoara,118,Timiș,321\",\n" + " \"version\": \"2016-03-10T00:00:00Z\",\n" + " \"comune\": 95,\n" + " \"orase\": \"4\"\n" + " }\n" + "}\n"; final String subst = "\\1\\2\\4"; final Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(regex, Pattern.MULTILINE); final Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(string); // The substituted value will be contained in the result variable final String result = matcher.replaceAll(subst); System.out.println("Substitution result: " + result); } }

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