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

use strict; my $str = '^(((\\+|0{2})\\s?[1-9]\\d{0,2})(\\s?(\\-\\s?)?)\\(?|0|\\() (0\\))? (0?[1-9](\\d{1,4}?|(\\d{1,2}\\s\\d{1,3}))) (\\s?(\\-\\s?)?) (\\d{2,4}?\\s?(\\d{2,3}\\s)?\\d{2,5})$ +11 89-123 12 12 +11 89 123 1234 +11 089 1234567 +11 789 123 123 +11 0789 123456 +11 89 1234567 +11 0123456789 00123456789012 0012345678901 +11 123456789 +123456789012 +12345678901 0789-123456 089-1234567 089 1234567 0123456789 0789 123456 00110 (0)789 1234567 0011(0)7891234567 0011 (0)7891234567 +11 (0)89 1234567 +11 (0)789 123456 +11 (0)123456789 0789-123456 089-1234567 089 1234567 0123456789 (0)789 123456 0(0)789 123456 001(0)789 123456 +1(0)789 123456 +11 79887 123456 +11 7988 7 123456 +11 798 87 123456 +11 79 887 123456 +11 7 9887 123456 +11789123456 00117891234567 +11 789 123456'; my $regex = qr/^(((\+|0{2})\s?[1-9]\d{0,2})(\s?(\-\s?)?)\(?|0|\()(0\))?(0?[1-9](\d{1,4}?|(\d{1,2}\s\d{1,3})))(\s?(\-\s?)?)(\d{2,4}?\s?(\d{2,3}\s)?\d{2,5})$/mp; if ( $str =~ /$regex/g ) { print "Whole match is ${^MATCH} and its start/end positions can be obtained via \$-[0] and \$+[0]\n"; # print "Capture Group 1 is $1 and its start/end positions can be obtained via \$-[1] and \$+[1]\n"; # print "Capture Group 2 is $2 ... and so on\n"; } # ${^POSTMATCH} and ${^PREMATCH} are also available with the use of '/p' # Named capture groups can be called via $+{name}

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 Perl, please visit: http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html