Quick-Start: Regex Cheat Sheet

The tables below are a reference to basic regex. While reading the rest of the site, when in doubt, you can always come back and look
here. (It you want a bookmark, here's a direct link to the regex reference tables). I encourage you to print the tables so you have a cheat
sheet on your desk for quick reference.

The tables are not exhaustive, for two reasons. First, every regex flavor is different, and I didn't want to crowd the page with overly exotic
syntax. For a full reference to the particular regex flavors you'll be using, it's always best to go straight to the source. In fact, for some
regex engines (such as Perl, PCRE, Java and .NET) you may want to check once a year, as their creators often introduce new features.

The other reason the tables are not exhaustive is that I wanted them to serve as a quick introduction to regex. If you are a complete
beginner, you should get a firm grasp of basic regex syntax just by reading the examples in the tables. I tried to introduce features in a
logical order and to keep out oddities that I've never seen in actual use, such as the "bell character". With these tables as a jumping board,
you will be able to advance to mastery by exploring the other pages on the site.

How to use the tables

The tables are meant to serve as an accelerated regex course, and they are meant to be read slowly, one line at a time. On each line, in the
leftmost column, you will find a new element of regex syntax. The next column, "Legend", explains what the element means (or encodes)
in the regex syntax. The next two columns work hand in hand: the "Example" column gives a valid regular expression that uses the
element, and the "Sample Match" column presents a text string that could be matched by the regular expression.

You can read the tables online, of course, but if you suffer from even the mildest case of online-ADD (attention deficit disorder), like most
of us… Well then, I highly recommend you print them out. You'll be able to study them slowly, and to use them as a cheat sheet later,
when you are reading the rest of the site or experimenting with your own regular expressions.

Enjoy!

If you overdose, make sure not to miss the next page, which comes back down to Earth and talks about some really cool stuff: The 1001
ways to use Regex.

Regex Accelerated Course and Cheat Sheet

For easy navigation, here are some jumping points to various sections of the page:

✽ Characters
✽ Quantifiers
✽ More Characters
✽ Logic
✽ More White-Space
✽ More Quantifiers
✽ Character Classes
✽ Anchors and Boundaries
✽ POSIX Classes
✽ Inline Modifiers
✽ Lookarounds
✽ Character Class Operations
✽ Other Syntax

(direct link)
Characters
Character Legend Example Sample Match
\d Most engines: one digit file_\d\d file_25
from 0 to 9
\d .NET, Python 3: one Unicode digit in any script file_\d\d file_9੩
\w Most engines: "word character": ASCII letter, digit or underscore \w-\w\w\w A-b_1
\w .Python 3: "word character": Unicode letter, ideogram, digit, or underscore \w-\w\w\w 字-ま_٣
\w .NET: "word character": Unicode letter, ideogram, digit, or connector \w-\w\w\w 字-ま‿٣
ab
\s Most engines: "whitespace character": space, tab, newline, carriage return, vertical tab a\sb\sc
c
ab
\s .NET, Python 3, JavaScript: "whitespace character": any Unicode separator a\sb\sc
c
\D One character that is not a digit as defined by your engine's \d \D\D\D ABC
\W One character that is not a word character as defined by your engine's \w \W\W\W\W\W *-+=)
\S One character that is not a whitespace character as defined by your engine's \s \S\S\S\S Yoyo

(direct link)
Quantifiers
Quantifier Legend Example Sample Match
+ One or more Version \w-\w+ Version A-b1_1
{3} Exactly three times \D{3} ABC
{2,4} Two to four times \d{2,4} 156
{3,} Three or more times \w{3,} regex_tutorial
* Zero or more times A*B*C* AAACC
? Once or none plurals? plural

(direct link)
More Characters
Character Legend Example Sample Match
. Any character except line break a.c abc
. Any character except line break .* whatever, man.
\. A period (special character: needs to be escaped by a \) a\.c a.c
\ Escapes a special character \.\*\+\? \$\^\/\\ .*+? $^/\
\ Escapes a special character \[\{\(\)\}\] [{()}]

(direct link)
Logic
Logic Legend Example Sample Match
| Alternation / OR operand 22|33 33
( … ) Capturing group A(nt|pple) Apple (captures "pple")
\1 Contents of Group 1 r(\w)g\1x regex
\2 Contents of Group 2 (\d\d)\+(\d\d)=\2\+\1 12+65=65+12
(?: … ) Non-capturing group A(?:nt|pple) Apple

(direct link)
More White-Space
Character Legend Example Sample
 Match
\t Tab T\t\w{2} T ab
\r Carriage return character see below
\n Line feed character see below
AB
\r\n Line separator on Windows AB\r\nCD
CD
\N Perl, PCRE (C, PHP, R…): one character that is not a line break \N+ ABC
\h Perl, PCRE (C, PHP, R…), Java: one horizontal whitespace character: tab or Unicode space separator
\H One character that is not a horizontal whitespace
\v .NET, JavaScript, Python, Ruby: vertical tab
Perl, PCRE (C, PHP, R…), Java: one vertical whitespace character: line feed, carriage return, vertical tab,
\v
form feed, paragraph or line separator
\V Perl, PCRE (C, PHP, R…), Java: any character that is not a vertical whitespace
Perl, PCRE (C, PHP, R…), Java: one line break (carriage return + line feed pair, and all the characters
\R
matched by \v)

(direct link)
More Quantifiers
Quantifier Legend Example Sample Match
+ The + (one or more) is "greedy" \d+ 12345
? Makes quantifiers "lazy" \d+? 1 in 12345
* The * (zero or more) is "greedy" A* AAA
? Makes quantifiers "lazy" A*? empty in AAA
{2,4} Two to four times, "greedy" \w{2,4} abcd
? Makes quantifiers "lazy" \w{2,4}? ab in abcd

(direct link)
Character Classes
Character Legend Example Sample Match
[…] One of the characters in the brackets [AEIOU] One uppercase vowel
[…] One of the characters in the brackets T[ao]p Tap or Top
- Range indicator [a-z] One lowercase letter
[x-y] One of the characters in the range from x to y [A-Z]+ GREAT
[AB1-5w-
[…] One of the characters in the brackets One of either: A,B,1,2,3,4,5,w,x,y,z
z]
Characters in the printable section of the ASCII
[x-y] One of the characters in the range from x to y [ -~]+
table.
[^x] One character that is not x [^a-z]{3} A1!
Characters that are not in the printable section of the
[^x-y] One of the characters not in the range from x to y [^ -~]+
ASCII table.
Any characters, inc-
[\d\D] One character that is a digit or a non-digit [\d\D]+ luding new lines, which the regular dot doesn't
match
Matches the character at hexadecimal position 41 in the [\x41-\x45]
[\x41] ABE
ASCII table, i.e. A {3}

(direct link)
Anchors and Boundaries
Anchor Legend Example Sample Match
Start of string or start of line depending on multiline mode. (But when [^inside brackets], it
^ ^abc .* abc (line start)
means "not")
$ End of string or end of line depending on multiline mode. Many engine-dependent subtleties. .*? the end$ this is the end
Beginning of string abc (string...
\A \Aabc[\d\D]*
(all major engines except JS) ...start)
Very end of the string this is...\n...the
\z the end\z
Not available in Python and JS end
End of string or (except Python) before final line break this is...\n...the
\Z the end\Z
Not available in JS end\n
Beginning of String or End of Previous Match
\G
.NET, Java, PCRE (C, PHP, R…), Perl, Ruby
Word boundary
\b Bob.*\bcat\b Bob ate the cat
Most engines: position where one side only is an ASCII letter, digit or underscore
Word boundary
Bob ate the
\b .NET, Java, Python 3, Ruby: position where one side only is a Unicode letter, digit or Bob.*\b\кошка\b
кошка
underscore
\B Not a word boundary c.*\Bcat\B.* copycats

(direct link)
POSIX Classes
Character Legend Example Sample Match
[:alpha:] PCRE (C, PHP, R…): ASCII letters A-Z and a-z [8[:alpha:]]+ WellDone88
[:alpha:] Ruby 2: Unicode letter or ideogram [[:alpha:]\d]+ кошка99
[:alnum:] PCRE (C, PHP, R…): ASCII digits and letters A-Z and a-z [[:alnum:]]{10} ABCDE12345
[:alnum:] Ruby 2: Unicode digit, letter or ideogram [[:alnum:]]{10} кошка90210
[:punct:] PCRE (C, PHP, R…): ASCII punctuation mark [[:punct:]]+ ?!.,:;
[:punct:] Ruby: Unicode punctuation mark [[:punct:]]+ ‽,:〽⁆

(direct link)
Inline Modifiers
None of these are supported in JavaScript. In Ruby, beware of (?s) and (?m).
Sample
Modifier Legend Example
Match
Case-insensitive mode
(?i) (?i)Monday monDAY
(except JavaScript)
DOTALL mode (except JS and Ruby). The dot (.) matches new line characters
From A
(?s) (\r\n). Also known as "single-line mode" because the dot treats the entire input (?s)From A.*to Z
to Z
as a single line
1
Multiline mode
(?m) (?m)1\r\n^2$\r\n^3$ 2
(except Ruby and JS) ^ and $ match at the beginning and end of every line
3
In Ruby: the same as (?s) in other engines, i.e. DOTALL mode, i.e. dot matches From A
(?m) (?m)From A.*to Z
line breaks to Z
(?x) # this is a
# comment
Free-Spacing Mode mode abc # write on multiple
(?x) abc d
(except JavaScript). Also known as comment mode or whitespace mode # lines
[ ]d # spaces must be
# in brackets
(?n) .NET, PCRE 10.30+: named capture only Turns all (parentheses) into non-
 capture groups. To capture, use
named groups.
The dot and the ^ and $ anchors are
(?d) Java: Unix linebreaks only
only affected by \n
(?^) PCRE 10.32+: unset modifiers Unsets ismnx modifiers

(direct link)
Lookarounds
Lookaround Legend Example Sample Match
(?=…) Positive lookahead (?=\d{10})\d{5} 01234 in 0123456789
(?<=…) Positive lookbehind (?<=\d)cat cat in 1cat
(?!…) Negative lookahead (?!theatre)the\w+ theme
(?<!…) Negative lookbehind \w{3}(?<!mon)ster Munster

(direct link)
Character Class Operations
Class
Legend Example Sample Match
Operation
.NET: character class subtraction. One character that is in those
[…-[…]] [a-z-[aeiou]] Any lowercase consonant
on the left, but not in the subtracted class.
An Arabic character that is not a non-
[…-[…]] .NET: character class subtraction. [\p{IsArabic}-[\D]]
digit, i.e., an Arabic digit
[…&& Java, Ruby 2+: character class intersection. One character that is An non-whitespace character that is a
[\S&&[\D]]
[…]] both in those on the left and in the && class. non-digit.
[…&& [\S&&[\D]&&[^a- An non-whitespace character that a
Java, Ruby 2+: character class intersection.
[…]] zA-Z]] non-digit and not a letter.
[…&& Java, Ruby 2+: character class subtraction is obtained by An English lowercase letter that is not
[a-z&&[^aeiou]]
[^…]] intersecting a class with a negated class a vowel.
[…&& [\p{InArabic}&& An Arabic character that is not a
Java, Ruby 2+: character class subtraction
[^…]] [^\p{L}\p{N}]] letter or a number

(direct link)
Other Syntax
Sample
Syntax Legend Example
Match
Keep Out
\K Perl, PCRE (C, PHP, R…), Python's alternate regex engine, Ruby 2+: drop everything that was matched so prefix\K\d+ 12
far from the overall match to be returned
Perl, PCRE (C, PHP, R…), Java: treat anything between the delimiters as a literal string. Useful to escape \Q(C++
\Q…\E (C++ ?)
metacharacters. ?)\E

Don't Miss The Regex Style Guide

and The Best Regex Trick Ever!!!

The 1001 ways to use Regex

Ask Rex

Leave a Comment
1-10 of 17 Threads
Pythia – New Zealand
July 15, 2020 - 03:54
Subject: Very thoughtful and useful cheat sheet

Unlike lots of other cheat sheets or regex web sites, I was able (without much persistent regex knowledge) to apply the rules and to solve
my problem. THANK YOU :)
Mark
July 04, 2020 - 10:14
Subject: Thanks a lot

Thanks a lot for the quick guide. It's really helpful.

Purusharth Amrut
June 10, 2020 - 14:41
Subject: Very useful site

Thank you soooooo much for this site. I'm using python regex for natural language processing in sentiment analysis and this helped me a
lot.
Alessandro Maiorana – Italy, Milan
April 15, 2020 - 12:43
Subject: Thank you! Excellent resource for any student

Thank you so much for this incredible cheatsheet! It is facilitating a lot my regex learning! God bless you and your passion!
michael – Bulgaria
April 10, 2020 - 12:43
Subject: Thank you for doing such a geat work.

I am now learning regex and for finding such a well organized site is a blessing! You are a good soul! Thank you for everything and stay
inspired!
Yuri – California
November 13, 2019 - 17:39
Subject: Simple = perfect

Thanks a lot, saved me tons of time!!!!

Tom – Europe, Poland
September 30, 2019 - 18:43
Subject: Congratulations

Well done, very useful page. Thank you for your effort. T
Najam
March 25, 2019 - 03:44
Subject: Thank you very much

Hi Rex,

Thankyou very much for compiling these. I am new to text analytics and is struggling a lot with regex. This is helping me a lot pick up.
Great work
Philip – Shannon, Ireland
September 28, 2017 - 15:57
Subject: Nice summary
Nice summary of regex. I was trying to remember how to group and I found the example above. Thanks.
Vishnu Prakash – India
June 08, 2017 - 08:30
Subject: Best Regex site ever

This is the best regex site ever on the internet. Regular Expressions are like any other language, they require time and effort to learn.
RexEgg makes it an easy journey. Great work Author. Kudos to you.

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