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

/
/
si

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 = "name\\s+?z155e4d1dde106c_point_test.+?(?<!meta)data\\s*\".+?from\\s+([^\\s]+?)\""; final String string = "MAP\n" + " CONFIG \"MS_ERRORFILE\" \"/srv/mapservices/mapfiles/tmp/155e4d1dde106c.log\"\n" + " DEBUG 5\n" + " IMAGETYPE PNG\n" + " SIZE 1600 800\n" + " STATUS ON\n\n" + " WEB\n" + " METADATA\n" + " \"wms_title\" \"Generated_Mapfile\"\n" + " \"wms_onlineresource\" \"http://142.207.151.5/cgi-bin/mapserv?map=/srv/portal/www/Mapservices/mapfiles/TSAZones.map&version=1.0.0&service=wms\"\n" + " \"wms_srs\" \"EPSG:3005 EPSG:4269 EPSG:3857\"\n" + " \"wms_enable_request\" \"*\"\n" + " \"wms_feature_info_mime_type\" \"text/html\"\n" + " END\n" + " QUERYFORMAT text/html\n" + " END\n\n\n" + " PROJECTION\n" + " \"init=epsg:3005\"\n" + " END\n\n" + " OUTPUTFORMAT\n" + " NAME png\n" + " DRIVER AGG/PNG\n" + " MIMETYPE \"image/png\"\n" + " IMAGEMODE RGBA\n" + " EXTENSION \"png\"\n" + " FORMATOPTION \"GAMMA=0.75\"\n" + " TRANSPARENT ON\n" + " END\n" + " LAYER\n" + " DEBUG 5\n" + " NAME z155e4d1dde106c_point_test\n" + " DUMP TRUE\n" + " TEMPLATE \"querytemplate.html\" \n\n" + " PROJECTION\n" + " \"init=epsg:3005\"\n" + " END\n\n" + " METADATA\n" + " \"wms_srs\" \"EPSG:3005\"\n" + " \"title\" \"TSA Zones\"\n" + " \"wms_title\" \"TSA Zones\"\n" + " \"wms_include_items\" \"all\" \n" + " \"gml_include_items\" \"all\" \n" + " END\n\n" + " TYPE POINT\n" + " CONNECTIONTYPE POSTGIS\n" + " CONNECTION \"host=127.0.0.1 dbname=stewardship user=portal_readwrite password=portal_readwrite\"\n" + " DATA \"wkb_geometry from z155e4d1dde106c_point_test\"\n\n" + " \n" + " CLASS\n" + " STYLE\n" + " COLOR 59 189 57 \n" + " OUTLINECOLOR 147 155 48\n" + " OPACITY 100\n" + " END\n" + " END\n" + "END\n" + "LAYER\n" + " DEBUG 5\n" + " NAME z155e4d1dde106c_poly_test1\n" + " DUMP TRUE\n" + " TEMPLATE \"querytemplate.html\" \n\n" + " PROJECTION\n" + " \"init=epsg:3005\"\n" + " END\n\n" + " METADATA\n" + " \"wms_srs\" \"EPSG:3005\"\n" + " \"title\" \"TSA Zones\"\n" + " \"wms_title\" \"TSA Zones\"\n" + " \"wms_include_items\" \"all\" \n" + " \"gml_include_items\" \"all\" \n" + " END\n\n" + " TYPE POLYGON\n" + " CONNECTIONTYPE POSTGIS\n" + " CONNECTION \"host=127.0.0.1 dbname=stewardship user=portal_readwrite password=portal_readwrite\"\n" + " DATA \"wkb_geometry from z155e4d1dde106c_poly_test1\"\n\n" + " \n" + " CLASS\n" + " STYLE\n" + " COLOR 121 71 143 \n" + " OUTLINECOLOR 96 133 94\n" + " OPACITY 100\n" + " END\n" + " END\n" + "END\n" + "END"; final Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(regex, Pattern.DOTALL | Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE); final Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(string); if (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