• Perl Regex Test
• Perl 5 Regex Cheat Sheet
• Regular Expression Cheat Sheet

Regular Expressions Cheat Sheet for Python, PHP, Perl, JavaScript and Ruby developers. The list of the most important metacharacters you'll ever need. To present a metacharacter as a data character standing for itself, precede it with (e.g. Matches the full stop character. In the table above, the characters themselves, in the first column, are links to descriptions of characters in my The ISO Latin 1 character repertoire - a description with usage notes. Perl Regular Expressions Tip Sheet Author: Jason Secosky Created Date: 12:33:11 PM.

The tables below are a reference to basic regex. While reading the rest of the site, when in doubt, you can always come back and look here. (It you want a bookmark, here's a direct link to the regex reference tables). I encourage you to print the tables so you have a cheat sheet on your desk for quick reference.
The tables are not exhaustive, for two reasons. First, every regex flavor is different, and I didn't want to crowd the page with overly exotic syntax. For a full reference to the particular regex flavors you'll be using, it's always best to go straight to the source. In fact, for some regex engines (such as Perl, PCRE, Java and .NET) you may want to check once a year, as their creators often introduce new features.
The other reason the tables are not exhaustive is that I wanted them to serve as a quick introduction to regex. If you are a complete beginner, you should get a firm grasp of basic regex syntax just by reading the examples in the tables. I tried to introduce features in a logical order and to keep out oddities that I've never seen in actual use, such as the 'bell character'. With these tables as a jumping board, you will be able to advance to mastery by exploring the other pages on the site.

How to use the tables

The tables are meant to serve as an accelerated regex course, and they are meant to be read slowly, one line at a time. On each line, in the leftmost column, you will find a new element of regex syntax. The next column, 'Legend', explains what the element means (or encodes) in the regex syntax. The next two columns work hand in hand: the 'Example' column gives a valid regular expression that uses the element, and the 'Sample Match' column presents a text string that could be matched by the regular expression.
You can read the tables online, of course, but if you suffer from even the mildest case of online-ADD (attention deficit disorder), like most of us… Well then, I highly recommend you print them out. You'll be able to study them slowly, and to use them as a cheat sheet later, when you are reading the rest of the site or experimenting with your own regular expressions.
Enjoy!
If you overdose, make sure not to miss the next page, which comes back down to Earth and talks about some really cool stuff: The 1001 ways to use Regex.

Regex Accelerated Course and Cheat Sheet

For easy navigation, here are some jumping points to various sections of the page:
✽ Characters
✽ Quantifiers
✽ More Characters

Perl Regex Test

✽ Logic
✽ More White-Space
✽ More Quantifiers
✽ Character Classes
✽ Anchors and Boundaries
✽ POSIX Classes
✽ Inline Modifiers
✽ Lookarounds
✽ Character Class Operations
✽ Other Syntax
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Characters

Character	Legend	Example	Sample Match
d	Most engines: one digit from 0 to 9	file_dd	file_25
d	.NET, Python 3: one Unicode digit in any script	file_dd	file_9੩
w	Most engines: 'word character': ASCII letter, digit or underscore	w-www	A-b_1
w	.Python 3: 'word character': Unicode letter, ideogram, digit, or underscore	w-www	字-ま_۳
w	.NET: 'word character': Unicode letter, ideogram, digit, or connector	w-www	字-ま‿۳
s	Most engines: 'whitespace character': space, tab, newline, carriage return, vertical tab	asbsc	a b c
s	.NET, Python 3, JavaScript: 'whitespace character': any Unicode separator	asbsc	a b c
D	One character that is not a digit as defined by your engine's d	DDD	ABC
W	One character that is not a word character as defined by your engine's w	WWWWW	*-+=)
S	One character that is not a whitespace character as defined by your engine's s	SSSS	Yoyo

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Quantifiers

Quantifier	Legend	Example	Sample Match
+	One or more	Version w-w+	Version A-b1_1
{3}	Exactly three times	D{3}	ABC
{2,4}	Two to four times	d{2,4}	156
{3,}	Three or more times	w{3,}	regex_tutorial
*	Zero or more times	A*B*C*	AAACC
?	Once or none	plurals?	plural

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More Characters

Character	Legend	Example	Sample Match
.	Any character except line break	a.c	abc
.	Any character except line break	.*	whatever, man.
.	A period (special character: needs to be escaped by a )	a.c	a.c
	Escapes a special character	.*+? $^/	.*+? $^/
	Escapes a special character	[{()}]	[{()}]

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Logic

Logic	Legend	Example	Sample Match
|	Alternation / OR operand	22|33	33
( … )	Capturing group	A(nt|pple)	Apple (captures 'pple')
1	Contents of Group 1	r(w)g1x	regex
2	Contents of Group 2	(dd)+(dd)=2+1	12+65=65+12
(?: … )	Non-capturing group	A(?:nt|pple)	Apple

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More White-Space

Character	Legend	Example	Sample Match
t	Tab	Ttw{2}	T ab
r	Carriage return character	see below
n	Line feed character	see below
rn	Line separator on Windows	ABrnCD	AB CD
N	Perl, PCRE (C, PHP, R…): one character that is not a line break	N+	ABC
h	Perl, PCRE (C, PHP, R…), Java: one horizontal whitespace character: tab or Unicode space separator
H	One character that is not a horizontal whitespace
v	.NET, JavaScript, Python, Ruby: vertical tab
v	Perl, PCRE (C, PHP, R…), Java: one vertical whitespace character: line feed, carriage return, vertical tab, form feed, paragraph or line separator
V	Perl, PCRE (C, PHP, R…), Java: any character that is not a vertical whitespace
R	Perl, PCRE (C, PHP, R…), Java: one line break (carriage return + line feed pair, and all the characters matched by v)

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More Quantifiers

Quantifier	Legend	Example	Sample Match
+	The + (one or more) is 'greedy'	d+	12345
?	Makes quantifiers 'lazy'	d+?	1 in 12345
*	The * (zero or more) is 'greedy'	A*	AAA
?	Makes quantifiers 'lazy'	A*?	empty in AAA
{2,4}	Two to four times, 'greedy'	w{2,4}	abcd
?	Makes quantifiers 'lazy'	w{2,4}?	ab in abcd

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Character Classes

Character	Legend	Example	Sample Match
[ … ]	One of the characters in the brackets	[AEIOU]	One uppercase vowel
[ … ]	One of the characters in the brackets	T[ao]p	Tap or Top
-	Range indicator	[a-z]	One lowercase letter
[x-y]	One of the characters in the range from x to y	[A-Z]+	GREAT
[ … ]	One of the characters in the brackets	[AB1-5w-z]	One of either: A,B,1,2,3,4,5,w,x,y,z
[x-y]	One of the characters in the range from x to y	[ -~]+	Characters in the printable section of the ASCII table.
[^x]	One character that is not x	[^a-z]{3}	A1!
[^x-y]	One of the characters not in the range from x to y	[^ -~]+	Characters that are not in the printable section of the ASCII table.
[dD]	One character that is a digit or a non-digit	[dD]+	Any characters, inc- luding new lines, which the regular dot doesn't match
[x41]	Matches the character at hexadecimal position 41 in the ASCII table, i.e. A	[x41-x45]{3}	ABE

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Anchors and Boundaries

Anchor	Legend	Example	Sample Match
^	Start of string or start of line depending on multiline mode. (But when [^inside brackets], it means 'not')	^abc .*	abc (line start)
$	End of string or end of line depending on multiline mode. Many engine-dependent subtleties.	.*? the end$	this is the end
A	Beginning of string (all major engines except JS)	Aabc[dD]*	abc (string... ...start)
z	Very end of the string Not available in Python and JS	the endz	this is...n...the end
Z	End of string or (except Python) before final line break Not available in JS	the endZ	this is...n...the endn
G	Beginning of String or End of Previous Match .NET, Java, PCRE (C, PHP, R…), Perl, Ruby
b	Word boundary Most engines: position where one side only is an ASCII letter, digit or underscore	Bob.*bcatb	Bob ate the cat
b	Word boundary .NET, Java, Python 3, Ruby: position where one side only is a Unicode letter, digit or underscore	Bob.*bкошкаb	Bob ate the кошка
B	Not a word boundary	c.*BcatB.*	copycats

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POSIX Classes

Character	Legend	Example	Sample Match
[:alpha:]	PCRE (C, PHP, R…): ASCII letters A-Z and a-z	[8[:alpha:]]+	WellDone88
[:alpha:]	Ruby 2: Unicode letter or ideogram	[[:alpha:]d]+	кошка99
[:alnum:]	PCRE (C, PHP, R…): ASCII digits and letters A-Z and a-z	[[:alnum:]]{10}	ABCDE12345
[:alnum:]	Ruby 2: Unicode digit, letter or ideogram	[[:alnum:]]{10}	кошка90210
[:punct:]	PCRE (C, PHP, R…): ASCII punctuation mark	[[:punct:]]+	?!.,:;
[:punct:]	Ruby: Unicode punctuation mark	[[:punct:]]+	‽,:〽⁆

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Inline Modifiers

None of these are supported in JavaScript. In Ruby, beware of (?s) and (?m).

Modifier	Legend	Example	Sample Match
(?i)	Case-insensitive mode (except JavaScript)	(?i)Monday	monDAY
(?s)	DOTALL mode (except JS and Ruby). The dot (.) matches new line characters (rn). Also known as 'single-line mode' because the dot treats the entire input as a single line	(?s)From A.*to Z	From A to Z
(?m)	Multiline mode (except Ruby and JS) ^ and $ match at the beginning and end of every line	(?m)1rn^2$rn^3$	1 2 3
(?m)	In Ruby: the same as (?s) in other engines, i.e. DOTALL mode, i.e. dot matches line breaks	(?m)From A.*to Z	From A to Z
(?x)	Free-Spacing Mode mode (except JavaScript). Also known as comment mode or whitespace mode	(?x) # this is a # comment abc # write on multiple # lines [ ]d # spaces must be # in brackets	abc d
(?n)	.NET, PCRE 10.30+: named capture only	Turns all (parentheses) into non-capture groups. To capture, use named groups.
(?d)	Java: Unix linebreaks only	The dot and the ^ and $ anchors are only affected by n
(?^)	PCRE 10.32+: unset modifiers	Unsets ismnx modifiers

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Lookarounds

Lookaround	Legend	Example	Sample Match
(?=…)	Positive lookahead	(?=d{10})d{5}	01234 in 0123456789
(?<=…)	Positive lookbehind	(?<=d)cat	cat in 1cat
(?!…)	Negative lookahead	(?!theatre)thew+	theme
(?<!…)	Negative lookbehind	w{3}(?<!mon)ster	Munster

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Character Class Operations

Class Operation	Legend	Example	Sample Match
[…-[…]]	.NET: character class subtraction. One character that is in those on the left, but not in the subtracted class.	[a-z-[aeiou]]	Any lowercase consonant
[…-[…]]	.NET: character class subtraction.	[p{IsArabic}-[D]]	An Arabic character that is not a non-digit, i.e., an Arabic digit
[…&&[…]]	Java, Ruby 2+: character class intersection. One character that is both in those on the left and in the && class.	[S&&[D]]	An non-whitespace character that is a non-digit.
[…&&[…]]	Java, Ruby 2+: character class intersection.	[S&&[D]&&[^a-zA-Z]]	An non-whitespace character that a non-digit and not a letter.
[…&&[^…]]	Java, Ruby 2+: character class subtraction is obtained by intersecting a class with a negated class	[a-z&&[^aeiou]]	An English lowercase letter that is not a vowel.
[…&&[^…]]	Java, Ruby 2+: character class subtraction	[p{InArabic}&&[^p{L}p{N}]]	An Arabic character that is not a letter or a number

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Other Syntax

Syntax	Legend	Example	Sample Match
K	Keep Out Perl, PCRE (C, PHP, R…), Python's alternate regex engine, Ruby 2+: drop everything that was matched so far from the overall match to be returned	prefixKd+	12
Q…E	Perl, PCRE (C, PHP, R…), Java: treat anything between the delimiters as a literal string. Useful to escape metacharacters.	Q(C++ ?)E	(C++ ?)

The 1001 ways to use Regex

Summary: in this tutorial, you are going to learn about Perl regular expression, the most powerful feature of the Perl programming language.

A regular expression is a pattern that provides a flexible and concise mean to match the string of text. A regular expression is also referred to as regex or regexp.

A regular expression can be either simple or complex, depending on the pattern you want to match.

Basic matching

The following illustrates the basic syntax of regular expression matching:

The operator =~ is the binding operator. The whole expression returns a value to indicate whether the regular expression regex was able to match the string successfully.

Let’s take a look at an example.

First, we declare a string variable:

Second, to find if the string $s contains the substring ul you use the following regular expression:

Putting it all together.

To identify if a string does not match a given regular expression, you use negated form of the binding operator ( !~). The following example demonstrates how to use the negation to find all strings in an array that does not match the regular expression /er/:

And the output is:

If you want to match a pattern that contains a forward slash (/) character, you have to escape it using a backslash () character. You can also use a different delimiter if you precede the regular expression with the letter m, the letter m stands for match.

Let’s take a look at the following example:

How it works.

• First, we declared an array of strings that contains HTML code.
• Second, we looped over the elements of the array and displayed the element that contains any number of forward slash character (/). Notice that we preceded the letter m and used double quotes as the delimiter for the regular expression.

Perl 5 Regex Cheat Sheet

The following is the output of the program:

Matching case insensitively

Let’s take a look at the following example:

We expect the output of the program is “match”. However, it is not. Because the string $s does not contain the word Expression , but expression with the first letter E in lowercase.

To instructs Perl to match a pattern case insensitive, you need to add a modifier i as the following example:

Regular Expression Cheat Sheet

Now, we got what we expected.

Perl regular expression with quantifiers

In the previous examples, we have created regular expressions by simply putting the characters we want to match between a pair of forward slashes. What if you want to find the same sequence of characters multiple times? you may quickly write something like:

How about 100 times or more? Fortunately, regular expression engine provides you with quantifiers to build such kind of patterns. For example, to find match 100 times in a text, you could do it as follows:

The following table provides some useful quantifiers:

Let’s take a look at the following example:

The regular expression /a*l+/ means zero or more a followed by at least one or more l, therefore, the output is:

Up to now you’ve noticed that the regular expression engine treats some characters in a special way. These characters are called metacharacters. The following are the metacharacters in Perl regular expressions:

To match the literal version of those characters, you have to a backslash in front of them in the regular expressions.

In this tutorial, we have introduced you to some techniques to match strings of text using Perl regular expression including basic matching, case-insensitive matching and quantifiers.

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