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

$re = '/You\d:\d\d PM\n/m'; $str = 'shape our society v deep constituent be bombarded by creep into our personal space v harass v Do you think that advertising is now playing a major role in our knowledge of what we want? What two types of advertisement are covered in this study? Can you think of an example of each of these? Do you personally think there is one more successful advertising method than other? What personally sticks with you from an ad? What constitutes a bad advertisement in your experience? You1:24 PM ethereal frolick within the jungle v: carelessly walk, wander You1:26 PM Do you think that advertising plays on our existential anxiety? Do you believe that advertising is inherently immoral? Why/ Why not? to not have an inkling about sth v: have no idea You1:29 PM to cater to (our feelings) v: be aimed at evoking adj You1:30 PM They sell an image of perfection You1:34 PM And the iPhone is instrumental in these plans You1:36 PM I think the important thing for us is the way we want to feel We are caught You1:48 PM get in the way of my work v get sidelined v: get distracted persist in doing sth v You1:50 PM slick: elegant, luxurious, smart You1:52 PM ploy: a careful deviced plan to catch someone offguard regarding sth gimmick: a show of opulence or a surprising demonstration to dazzle spectators or consumers You1:53 PM oblige (obláidsh) You1:57 PM mirror v: reflect, pair, match You1:59 PM hard-sell approach: appealing to the consumer\'s feelings to insert a product trustworthiness'; $subst = ""; $result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str); echo "The result of the substitution is ".$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 PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php