jdhao/Sublime_text_regex_cheat_sheet.md

## Sublime_text_regex_cheat_sheet.md

      
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              Sublime_text_regex_cheat_sheet.md
            
          
    Special characters


expression
Description


.
Match any character


^
Match line begin


$
Match line end


*
Match previous RE 0 or more times greedily


*?
Match previous RE 0 or more times non-greedily


+
Match previous RE 1 or more times greedily


+?
Match previous RE 1 or more times non-greedily


?
Match previous RE 0 or 1 time greedily


??
Match previous RE 0 or 1 time non-greedily


A|B
Match either RE A or B


{m}
Match previous RE exactly m times


{m,n}
Match previous RE m to n times greedily


{m, n}?
Match previous RE m to n times, no-greedily


Character set


expression
Description


[abc]
Match either a, b or c


[^abc]
Match any character not in this set (i.e., not a, b and c)


[a-z]
Match the range from a to z


[a-f2-8]
Match the range from a to z or the range from 2 to 8


[a\-z]
Match a, - or z


[a-]
Match a, -


[-a]
Match -, a


[-a]
Match -, a


[{}*|()[]+\^$.?]
Match either one of the chacters in []{}*|()+^$?.


Note that you can also use character class inside [], for example, [\w] matches any character in word character class.

Character class

"Multiple character" character class

An expression of the form [[:name:]] matches the named character class name.


class name
Description


alnum
Any alpha-numeric character


alpha
Any alphabetic character.


digit
Any decimal digit.


xdigit
Any hexadecimal digit character.


lower
Any lower case character.


upper
Any upper case character.


cntrl
Any control character¹.


print
Any printable character.


punct
Any punctuation character. ²


space
Any whitespace character. ³


word
Any word character (alphanumeric characters plus the underscore).


"Single character" character class


class name
Description


\d
Equal to [[:digit:]]


\l
Equal to [[:lower:]]


\u
Equal to [[:upper:]]


\s
Equal to [[:space:]]


\w
Equal to [[:word:]]


\D
Equal to [^[:digit:]]


\L
Equal to [^[:lower:]]


\U
Equal to [^[:upper:]]


\W
Equal to [^[:word:]]


Regex groups

Defining groups


expression
Description


(?<NAME>expression)
Define a regex group named NAME which you can later refer to with \g{NAME}


(?=pattern)
Positive lookahead, consumes zero characters, the preceding RE only matches if this matches


(?=pattern)
Positive lookahead, consumes zero characters, the preceding RE only matches if this matches


(?<=pattern)
Positive lookbehind, consumes zero characters, the following RE will only match if preceded with this fixed length RE.


(?<!pattern)
Negative lookbehind, consumes zero characters, the following RE will only match if not preceded with this fixed length RE.


Matching groups


expression
Description


\1
Refer to first regex group


\g{1}
Refer to first regex group


\g{12}
Refer to 12th regex group


\g{-1}
Refer to last regex group


\g{-2}
Refer to last but one regex group


The regex groups are indexed by the order of their opening braces.
Note the \g{NUM} form allows for matching regex group index larger than 9, for example, \g{12}.

Miscellaneous

Escapes


class name
Description


\xdd
A hexadecimal escape sequence - matches the single character whose code point is 0xdd.


\x{dddd}
A hexadecimal escape sequence - matches the single character whose code point is 0xdddd.


Word boundaries

The following escape sequences match the boundaries of words:


class name
Description


\<
Matches the start of a word.


\>
Matches the end of a word.


\b
Matches a word boundary (the start or end of a word).


\B
Matches only when not at a word boundary.


References


https://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_44_0/libs/regex/doc/html/boost_regex/syntax/perl_syntax.html
http://docs.sublimetext.info/en/latest/search_and_replace/search_and_replace_overview.html
https://github.com/stajahlee/sublime-cheat-sheets/blob/master/cheat-sheets/Regular%20Expressions.cheatsheet
Character class

Footnotes


Control character explanation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_character ↩


There are 14 punctuation marks in English: https://grammar.yourdictionary.com/punctuation/what/fourteen-punctuation-marks.html ↩


For whitespace character, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitespace_character ↩
expression	Description
`.`	Match any character
`^`	Match line begin
`$`	Match line end
`*`	Match previous RE 0 or more times greedily
`*?`	Match previous RE 0 or more times non-greedily
`+`	Match previous RE 1 or more times greedily
`+?`	Match previous RE 1 or more times non-greedily
`?`	Match previous RE 0 or 1 time greedily
`??`	Match previous RE 0 or 1 time non-greedily
`A\|B`	Match either RE A or B
`{m}`	Match previous RE exactly m times
`{m,n}`	Match previous RE m to n times greedily
`{m, n}?`	Match previous RE m to n times, no-greedily
expression	Description
`[abc]`	Match either `a`, `b` or `c`
`[^abc]`	Match any character not in this set (i.e., not `a`, `b` and `c`)
`[a-z]`	Match the range from `a` to `z`
`[a-f2-8]`	Match the range from `a` to `z` or the range from `2` to `8`
`[a\-z]`	Match `a`, `-` or `z`
`[a-]`	Match `a`, `-`
`[-a]`	Match `-`, `a`
`[-a]`	Match `-`, `a`
`[{}*\|()[]+\^$.?]`	Match either one of the chacters in `[]{}*\|()+^$?.`
class name	Description
`alnum`	Any alpha-numeric character
`alpha`	Any alphabetic character.
`digit`	Any decimal digit.
`xdigit`	Any hexadecimal digit character.
`lower`	Any lower case character.
`upper`	Any upper case character.
`cntrl`	Any control character¹.
`print`	Any printable character.
`punct`	Any punctuation character. ²
`space`	Any whitespace character. ³
`word`	Any word character (alphanumeric characters plus the underscore).
class name	Description
`\d`	Equal to `[[:digit:]]`
`\l`	Equal to `[[:lower:]]`
`\u`	Equal to `[[:upper:]]`
`\s`	Equal to `[[:space:]]`
`\w`	Equal to `[[:word:]]`
`\D`	Equal to `[^[:digit:]]`
`\L`	Equal to `[^[:lower:]]`
`\U`	Equal to `[^[:upper:]]`
`\W`	Equal to `[^[:word:]]`
expression	Description
`(?<NAME>expression)`	Define a regex group named `NAME` which you can later refer to with `\g{NAME}`
`(?=pattern)`	Positive lookahead, consumes zero characters, the preceding RE only matches if this matches
`(?=pattern)`	Positive lookahead, consumes zero characters, the preceding RE only matches if this matches
`(?<=pattern)`	Positive lookbehind, consumes zero characters, the following RE will only match if preceded with this fixed length RE.
`(?<!pattern)`	Negative lookbehind, consumes zero characters, the following RE will only match if not preceded with this fixed length RE.
expression	Description
`\1`	Refer to first regex group
`\g{1}`	Refer to first regex group
`\g{12}`	Refer to 12th regex group
`\g{-1}`	Refer to last regex group
`\g{-2}`	Refer to last but one regex group
class name	Description
`\xdd`	A hexadecimal escape sequence - matches the single character whose code point is `0xdd`.
`\x{dddd}`	A hexadecimal escape sequence - matches the single character whose code point is `0xdddd`.
class name	Description
`\<`	Matches the start of a word.
`\>`	Matches the end of a word.
`\b`	Matches a word boundary (the start or end of a word).
`\B`	Matches only when not at a word boundary.