You signed in with another tab or window. Reload to refresh your session.You signed out in another tab or window. Reload to refresh your session.You switched accounts on another tab or window. Reload to refresh your session.Dismiss alert
.NET: This flavor is used by programming languages based on the Microsoft .NET framework versions 1.x, 2.0 or 3.x. It is generally also the regex flavor used by applications developed in these programming languages.
Java: The regex flavor of the java.util.regex package, available in the Java 4 (JDK 1.4.x) and later. A few features were added in Java 5 (JDK 1.5.x) and Java 6 (JDK 1.6.x). It is generally also the regex flavor used by applications developed in Java.
Perl: The regex flavor used in the Perl programming language, versions 5.6 and 5.8. Versions prior to 5.6 do not support Unicode.
PCRE: The open source PCRE library. The feature set described here is available in PCRE 5.x and 6.x. PCRE is the regex engine used by the TPerlRegEx Delphi component and the RegularExrpessions and RegularExpressionsCore units in Delphi XE and C++Builder XE.
ECMA (JavaScript): The regular expression syntax defined in the 3rd edition of the ECMA-262 standard, which defines the scripting language commonly known as JavaScript.
Python: The regex flavor supported by Python's built-in re module.
Ruby: The regex flavor built into the Ruby programming language.
Tcl ARE: The regex flavor developed by Henry Spencer for the regexp command in Tcl 8.2 and 8.4, dubbed Advanced Regular Expressions.
POSIX BRE: Basic Regular Expressions as defined in the IEEE POSIX standard 1003.2.
POSIX ERE: Extended Regular Expressions as defined in the IEEE POSIX standard 1003.2.
GNU BRE: GNU Basic Regular Expressions, which are POSIX BRE with GNU extensions, used in the GNU implementations of classic UNIX tools.
GNU ERE: GNU Extended Regular Expressions, which are POSIX ERE with GNU extensions, used in the GNU implementations of classic UNIX tools.
XML: The regular expression flavor defined in the XML Schema standard.
XPath: The regular expression flavor defined in the XQuery 1.0 and XPath 2.0 Functions and Operators standard.
Applications Implementing a Regular Expression Flavor
AceText: Version 2 and later use the JGsoft engine. Version 1 did not support regular expressions at all.
awk: The awk UNIX tool and programming language uses POSIX ERE.
Delphi for Win32: Delphi for Win32 does not have built-in regular expression support. Many free PCRE wrappers are available.
EditPad Pro: Version 6 and later use the JGsoft engine. Earlier versions used PCRE, without Unicode support.
egrep: The traditional UNIX egrep command uses the "POSIX ERE" flavor, though not all implementations fully adhere to the standard. Linux usually ships with the GNU implementation, which use "GNU ERE".
grep: The traditional UNIX grep command uses the "POSIX BRE" flavor, though not all implementations fully adhere to the standard. Linux usually ships with the GNU implementation, which use "GNU BRE".
Emacs: The GNU implementation of this classic UNIX text editor uses the "GNU ERE" flavor, except that POSIX classes, collations and equivalences are not supported.
Java: The regex flavor of the java.util.regex package is listed as "Java" in the table below.
JavaScript: JavaScript's regex flavor is listed as "ECMA" in the table below.
Oracle: Oracle Database 10g implements POSIX Extended Regular Expressions, listed as "POSIX ERE" in the table below. Oracle supports backreferences \1 through \9, though these are not part of the POSIX ERE standard.
Perl: Perl's regex flavor is listed as "Perl" in the table below.
PHP: PHP's ereg functions implement the "POSIX ERE" flavor, while the preg functions implement the "PCRE" flavor.
PostgreSQL: PostgreSQL 7.4 and later uses Henry Spencer's "Advanced Regular Expressions" flavor, listed as "Tcl ARE" in the table below. Earlier versions used POSIX Extended Regular Expressions, listed as POSIX ERE.
PowerGREP: Version 3 and later use the JGsoft engine. Earlier versions used PCRE, without Unicode support.
PowerShell: PowerShell's built-in -match and -replace operators use the .NET regex flavor. PowerShell can also use the System.Text.RegularExpressions classes directly.
Python: Python's regex flavor is listed as "Python" in the table below.
R: The regular expression functions in the R language for statistical programming use either the POSIX ERE flavor (default), the PCRE flavor (perl = true) or the POSIX BRE flavor (perl = false, extended = false).
REALbasic: REALbasic's RegEx class is a wrapper around PCRE.
RegexBuddy: Version 3 and later use a special version of the JGsoft engine that emulates all the regular expression flavors in this comparison. Version 2 supported the JGsoft regex flavor only. Version 1 used PCRE, without Unicode support.
Ruby: Ruby's regex flavor is listed as "Ruby" in the table below.
sed: The sed UNIX tool uses POSIX BRE. Linux usually ships with the GNU implementation, which use "GNU BRE".
Tcl: Tcl's Advanced Regular Expression flavor, the default flavor in Tcl 8.2 and later, is listed as "Tcl ARE" in the table below. Tcl's Extended Regular Expression and Basic Regular Expression flavors are listed as "POSIX ERE" and "POSIX BRE" in the table below.
VBScript: VBScript's RegExp object uses the same regex flavor as JavaScript, which is listed as "ECMA" in the table below.
Visual Basic 6: Visual Basic 6 does not have built-in support for regular expressions, but can easily use the "Microsoft VBScript Regular Expressions 5.5" COM object, which implements the "ECMA" flavor listed below.