. ? + * ^ $ \
( ) [ ] { } | Need to be escaped with a backslash () to match the actual character
- Any other character matches itself
. Matches one of any character
(...) Groups elements into a single element (also captures contents)
(?:...) Groups elements into a single element (doesn’t captures contents)
(...|...|...) Matches one of the alternatives
[abc] Matches any character (same as (a|b|c))
[^abc] Matches any other character
- Only
^ - \ ]need to be escaped inside a character class - May include simple ranges (eg,
[a-z123A-F])
\d Matches digits (same as [0-9])
\D Matches non-digits (same as [^0-9])
\w Matches alphanumeric (same as [a-zA-Z0-9_])
\W Matches non-alphanumeric (same as [^a-zA-Z0-9_])
\s Matches whitespace
\S Matches non-whitespace
- Anchors match the position between characters, not the characters themselves
^ Matches the position at the beginning of the line
$ Matches the position at the end of the line
\b Matches the position between a \w\W or \W\w (word boundary)*
\B Matches the position between a \w\w or \W\W (non-word boundary)
\balso matches at the beginning and end of a line
- Quantifiers are normally greedy (match as much as possible)
- When followed by
?they become lazy (match as little as possible)
? Match the previous element zero or one times (one if possible)
?? Match the previous element zero or one times (zero if possible)
+ Match the previous element one or more times (as many as possible)
+? Match the previous element one or more times (as few as possible)
* Match the previous element zero or more times (as many as possible)
*? Match the previous element zero or more times (as few as possible)
{n} Match the previous element exactly n times
{n,} Match the previous element at least n times (as many as possible)
{n,}? Match the previous element at least n times (as few as possible)
{n,m} Match the previous element between n - m times (as many as possible)
{n,m}? Match the previous element between n - m times (as few as possible)
(...) Capture text matched between parentheses to an unnamed capture
\n Match the text in capture #n, captured earlier in the match pattern
- The order of unnamed captures are defined by the order of the opening parentheses:
(reg)ex((re)(name)r)— #1 = reg, #2 = renamer, #3 = re, #4 = name - n > 9 is only available if you have more than 9 captures
(?<foo>...) Capture text matched between parentheses to a capture named “foo”
\<foo> Match the text in capture “foo”, captured earlier in the match pattern
(?=...) Positive lookahead (match the position before the specified regex)
(?!...) Negative lookahead (don’t match, as above)
(?<=...) Positive lookbehind (match the position after the specified regex)
(?<!...) Negative lookbehind (don't match, as above)
(?(test)true) If positive lookahead test matches, match true regex
(?(test)true|false) As above, otherwise match false regex
(?(capture)true) If capture (name or number) contains text, match true regex
(?(capture)true|false) As above, otherwise match false regex
(?x) Turn on modifier x until the end of the containing group
(?-x) Turn off modifier x until the end of the containing group
(?x:...) Turn on modifier x for the section
(?-x:...) Turn off modifier x for the section
- Relevent modifiers are
i(ignore case) andx(extended regex). - You may group more than one modifier together
Source: http://regexrenamer.sourceforge.net/help/regex_quickref.html