Golang Regex Cheatsheet

Golang_Regex_Cheatsheet.md

Golang Regex Cheatsheet

Using the regexp package

Include in the imports:

import "regexp"

For full package documentation see here

NB. Many functions available in this package have a version that works on strings (e.g. FindAllStringIndex) and a version that works on a slice of bytes (e.g. FindAllIndex).

In this cheatsheet I show the string versions

Simple usage

matched, err := regexp.MatchString("\w+", "hello world")
// => true, nil

matched, err := regexp.MatchString("\d+", "hello world")
// => false, nil

Creating a Regexp Object

re, err := regexp.Compile("\d+")

Panics if the regex expression cannot be parsed:

re := regexp.MustCompile("\d+")

Return true/false if contains match

re, _ := regexp.Compile("\d+")

matched := re.Match("10 green bottles")
// => true

matched := re.Match("ten green bottles")
// => false

Return single match

re, _ := regexp.Compile("foo.")

result := re.FindString("april fool football")
// => "fool"

result = re.FindString("april showers")
// => ""

Return all match strings

Returns a slice of matches.

Second argument indicates how many matches to return if > 0.

-1 indicates return all matches.

re, _ := regexp.Compile(".aa")

matches := re.FindAllString("faa baa haa", -1)
// => ["faa", "baa", "haa"]

matches = re.FindAllString("faa baa haa", 2)
// => ["faa", "baa"]

Return position of first match

Returns a slice of indices indicating where the first match is found

The match is at s[loc[0]:loc[1]]

The second index is non-inclusive. Returns nil if match not found

re, _ := regexp.Compile(".aa")

indices := re.FindStringIndex("faa baa")
// => [0, 3]

indices := re.FindStringIndex("helpful goat")
// => nil

## Return positions of all matches

re, _ := regexp.Compile(".aa")

indices := re.FindAllStringIndex("faa baa")
// => [ [0, 3], [4, 7] ]

Replace matches

Replace all matching substrings in the first argument with the string provided as the second argument

re, _ := regexp.Compile("\.")
replaced := re.ReplaceAllString("123.346.789", "_")
// => "123_456_789"

Capture Groups

Find the first (leftmost) match and the matches of its subexpressions (capture groups)

Returns a slice containing the full match followed by subexpressions:

time := "03:24"

re := regexp.MustCompile(`(\d+):(\d+)`)
matches := re.FindStringSubmatch(time)

// ["03:24", "03", "24"]

Find all matches, including matches of each one's subexpressions (capture groups)

Returns a slice of slices:

time := "03:24 18:45"

re := regexp.MustCompile(`(\d+):(\d+)`)
matches := re.FindAllStringSubmatch(time, -1)

// [["03:24", "03", "24"], ["18:45", "18", "45"]]