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

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 = "^(?:#(?:[A-Fa-f0-9]{3}){1,2}|(?:rgb[(](?:\\s*0*(?:\\d\\d?(?:\\.\\d+)?(?:\\s*%)?|\\.\\d+\\s*%|100(?:\\.0*)?\\s*%|(?:1\\d\\d|2[0-4]\\d|25[0-5])(?:\\.\\d+)?)\\s*(?:,(?![)])|(?=[)]))){3}|hsl[(]\\s*0*(?:[12]?\\d{1,2}|3(?:[0-5]\\d|60))\\s*(?:\\s*,\\s*0*(?:\\d\\d?(?:\\.\\d+)?\\s*%|\\.\\d+\\s*%|100(?:\\.0*)?\\s*%)){2}\\s*|(?:rgba[(](?:\\s*0*(?:\\d\\d?(?:\\.\\d+)?(?:\\s*%)?|\\.\\d+\\s*%|100(?:\\.0*)?\\s*%|(?:1\\d\\d|2[0-4]\\d|25[0-5])(?:\\.\\d+)?)\\s*,){3}|hsla[(]\\s*0*(?:[12]?\\d{1,2}|3(?:[0-5]\\d|60))\\s*(?:\\s*,\\s*0*(?:\\d\\d?(?:\\.\\d+)?\\s*%|\\.\\d+\\s*%|100(?:\\.0*)?\\s*%)){2}\\s*,)\\s*0*(?:\\.\\d+|1(?:\\.0*)?)\\s*)[)])$"; final String string = "#0F0F0F\n" + "#123\n" + "#1234\n" + "#ABC456\n" + "#1234567\n" + "rgb(1,2,3)\n" + "rgb(1,2,)\n" + "rgb(112233)\n" + "rgb(255,249,199)\n" + "rgb(256,249,199)\n" + "rgb(255,249,199,)\n" + "rgb( 100%, 199, 50%)\n" + "rgb( 100%, 199%, 50%)\n" + "rgb(1,2,3%,.5)\n" + "rgba(1,2,3%,0.75)\n" + "rgba(1,2,3%,.5)\n" + "rgba(1,2,.5)\n" + "rgba(1,2,3)\n" + "rgba(1,249,100,1)\n" + "rgba(1,249,100,1.0)\n" + "rgba(1,249,100,1.1)\n" + "rgba(255,256,255,1)\n" + "rgba(1,249.5,100%,1)\n" + "rgba(1,249.5,101%,1)\n" + "hsl(360,2%,100%)\n" + "hsl(361,2%,100%)\n" + "hsl(,2%,100%)\n" + "hsl(360,2%,)\n" + "hsl(360,2%,0100.00%)\n" + "hsl(360,2%,101%)\n" + "hsla(180,2%,100%,0.5)\n" + "hsla(180,2%,100%,)"; 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