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

/
/
ig

Test String

Code Generator

Language

Generated Code

use strict; my $str = 'https://twitter.com/SND_TST https://www.twitter.com/SND_TST/status/469979579168202752 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-50NdPawLVY'; my $regex = qr/((https?:\/\/(www\.flickr\.com\/photos\/.*|flic\.kr\/.*|www\.twitter\.com\/.*|twitter\.com\/.*|.*imgur\.com\/.*|img\.ly\/.*|instagr\.am\/p\/.*|instagram\.com\/p\/.*|www\.instagram\.com\/p\/.*|giphy\.com\/gifs\/.*|gph\.is\/.*|media\.giphy\.com\/media\/.*|linkedin\.com\/in\/.*|linkedin\.com\/pub\/.*|.*\.linkedin\.com\/in\/.*|.*\.linkedin\.com\/pub\/.*|linkedin\.com\/in\/.*|linkedin\.com\/company\/.*|.*\.linkedin\.com\/company\/.*|tumblr\.com\/.*|.*\.tumblr\.com\/post\/.*|.*youtube\.com\/watch.*|.*\.youtube\.com\/v\/.*|youtu\.be\/.*|.*\.youtube\.com\/user\/.*|.*\.youtube\.com\/.*#.*\/.*|m\.youtube\.com\/watch.*|m\.youtube\.com\/index.*|.*\.youtube\.com\/profile.*|.*\.youtube\.com\/view_play_list.*|.*\.youtube\.com\/playlist.*|www\.youtube\.com\/embed\/.*|youtube\.com\/gif.*|www\.youtube\.com\/gif.*|www\.youtube\.com\/attribution_link.*|youtube\.com\/attribution_link.*|youtube\.ca\/.*|youtube\.jp\/.*|youtube\.com\.br\/.*|youtube\.co\.uk\/.*|youtube\.nl\/.*|youtube\.pl\/.*|youtube\.es\/.*|youtube\.ie\/.*|it\.youtube\.com\/.*|youtube\.fr\/.*|vids\.myspace\.com\/index\.cfm\?fuseaction=vids\.individual&videoid.*|www\.myspace\.com\/index\.cfm\?fuseaction=.*&videoid.*|vine\.co\/v\/.*|www\.vine\.co\/v\/.*|www\.vimeo\.com\/groups\/.*\/videos\/.*|www\.vimeo\.com\/.*|vimeo\.com\/groups\/.*\/videos\/.*|vimeo\.com\/.*|vimeo\.com\/m\/#\/.*|player\.vimeo\.com\/.*|www\.vevo\.com\/watch\/.*|www\.vevo\.com\/video\/.*|www\.facebook\.com\/photo\.php.*|www\.facebook\.com\/video\.php.*|www\.facebook\.com\/.*\/posts\/.*|fb\.me\/.*|www\.facebook\.com\/.*\/photos\/.*|www\.facebook\.com\/.*\/videos\/.*|fb\.com|plus\.google\.com\/.*|www\.google\.com\/profiles\/.*|google\.com\/profiles\/.*|soundcloud\.com\/.*|soundcloud\.com\/.*\/.*|soundcloud\.com\/.*\/sets\/.*|soundcloud\.com\/groups\/.*|snd\.sc\/.*|open\.spotify\.com\/.*|spoti\.fi\/.*|play\.spotify\.com\/.*|grooveshark\.com\/.*))|(https:\/\/(www\.flickr\.com\/photos\/.*|flic\.kr\/.*|.*imgur\.com\/.*|www\.instagram\.com\/p\/.*|giphy\.com\/gifs\/.*|gph\.is\/.*|media\.giphy\.com\/media\/.*|linkedin\.com\/in\/.*|linkedin\.com\/pub\/.*|.*\.linkedin\.com\/in\/.*|.*\.linkedin\.com\/pub\/.*|linkedin\.com\/in\/.*|linkedin\.com\/company\/.*|.*\.linkedin\.com\/company\/.*|tumblr\.com\/.*|.*\.tumblr\.com\/post\/.*|.*youtube\.com\/watch.*|.*\.youtube\.com\/v\/.*|youtu\.be\/.*|.*\.youtube\.com\/playlist.*|www\.youtube\.com\/embed\/.*|youtube\.com\/gif.*|www\.youtube\.com\/gif.*|www\.youtube\.com\/attribution_link.*|youtube\.com\/attribution_link.*|youtube\.ca\/.*|youtube\.jp\/.*|youtube\.com\.br\/.*|youtube\.co\.uk\/.*|youtube\.nl\/.*|youtube\.pl\/.*|youtube\.es\/.*|youtube\.ie\/.*|it\.youtube\.com\/.*|youtube\.fr\/.*|vine\.co\/v\/.*|www\.vine\.co\/v\/.*|www\.vimeo\.com\/.*|vimeo\.com\/.*|player\.vimeo\.com\/.*|www\.vevo\.com\/watch\/.*|www\.vevo\.com\/video\/.*|www\.facebook\.com\/photo\.php.*|www\.facebook\.com\/video\.php.*|www\.facebook\.com\/.*\/posts\/.*|fb\.me\/.*|www\.facebook\.com\/.*\/photos\/.*|www\.facebook\.com\/.*\/videos\/.*|www\.facebook\.com\/events\/.*|plus\.google\.com\/.*|soundcloud\.com\/.*|soundcloud\.com\/.*\/.*|soundcloud\.com\/.*\/sets\/.*|soundcloud\.com\/groups\/.*|open\.spotify\.com\/.*|play\.spotify\.com\/.*)))/ip; 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