Meta Characters

meta-characters.md

Meta character	Description
.	Period matches any single character except a line break.
[ ]	Character class. Matches any character contained between the square brackets.
[^ ]	Negated character class. Matches any character that is not contained between the square brackets
*	Matches 0 or more repetitions of the preceding symbol.
+	Matches 1 or more repetitions of the preceding symbol.
?	Makes the preceding symbol optional.
{n,m}	Braces. Matches at least "n" but not more than "m" repetitions of the preceding symbol.
(xyz)	Character group. Matches the characters xyz in that exact order.
|	Alternation. Matches either the characters before or the characters after the symbol.
\	Escapes the next character. This allows you to match reserved characters [ ] ( ) { } . * + ? ^ $ \ |
^	Matches the beginning of the input.
$	Matches the end of the input.