Large Text File Viewer 4.1 - Regular Expression Syntax

Special Symbols | Examples

 

Special Symbol

Meaning
_ Any white-space character (including tab).
. Any single character.
[aeiou] Any single character that is contained in the brackets. For example, 'b[aei]d' matches 'bad', 'bed', and 'bid'.
[^aeiou] Any single character that is NOT contained in the brackets. For example, 'b[^aei]d' matches 'bxd', 'b3d', 'b_d', and so on, but not 'bad', 'bed' and 'bid'.
[a-z] Any single character that is in the range of characters separated by a hyphen (-) in the brackets. For example, 'x[0-9]' matches 'x0', 'x1', 'x2', and so on.
[^a-z] Any single character that is NOT in the range of characters separated by a hyphen (-) in the brackets. For example, 'x[^0-9]' matches 'xa', 'xb', 'xc', and so on, but not 'x0', 'x1', 'x2', and so on.
~ Any single character as long as it is different from the following character. For example, 'b~ad' matches 'bd', 'bed', 'b2d', and so on, but not 'bad'.
^ The beginning of a line.
$ The end of a line.
\ Quote the following character. For example, '100$' matches '100' at the end of a line, but '100\$' matches the string '100$' anywhere in a line.
* None or more of the preceding character or expression. For example, 'ba*d' matches 'bd', 'bad', 'baad', 'baaad', and so on.
+ At least one or more of the preceding character or expression. For example, 'ba+d' matches 'bad', 'baad', 'baaad', and so on, but not 'bd'.
? None or one of the preceding character or expression. For example, 'ba?d' matches 'bd' and 'bad', but not 'baad', 'baaad', and so on.
{n} Exactly n copies of the preceding character or expression. For example, 'ba{2}d' matches 'baad', but not 'bd', 'bad', 'baaad' and so on. One special usage is to exclude certain expression using {0}.
{n1-n2} At least n1 copies, but no more than n2 copies of the preceding character or expression. For example, 'ba{1-2}d' matches 'bad' and 'baad', but not 'bd', 'baaad', 'baaaad', and so on.
{n+} At least n copies of the preceding character or expression. For example, 'ba{2+}d' matches 'baad', 'baaad', 'baaaad', and so on, but not 'bd' and 'bad'.
(exp1|exp2|exp3) Any one of the expressions separated by the alternation symbol ( | ). For example, '(pine|crab)apple' matches 'pineapple' and 'crabapple'.

(exp)*
(exp)+
(exp)?
(exp){n}
(exp){n1-n2}
(exp){n+}

 The special symbol should be applied to the expression instead of just the preceding character. For example, '(abc)*def' matches 'def', 'abcdef', 'abcabcdef', 'abcabcabcdef', and so on; '(abc){1-2}def' matches 'abcdef' and 'abcabcdef', but not 'def', 'abcabcabcdef', 'abcabcabcabcdef', and so on.

 

Special Symbols | Examples

 

Type Of Text To Be Found Example Of Regular Expression
Quoted string "[^"]+"
Hexadecimal integer [0-9a-fA-F]+
Floating-point number [\+\-]? ( [0-9]+\.[0-9]* | [0-9]*\.[0-9]+ | [0-9]+ ) ([eE][\+\-]?[0-9]+)?
Date of any format (
  ([0-9]{1-2}/){2}[0-9]{2}
|
  ([0-9]{1-2}/){2}[0-9]{4}
|
  ([0-9]{1-2}\.){2}[0-9]{2}
|
  ([0-9]{1-2}\.){2}[0-9]{4}
|
  [0-9]{4}(\-[0-9]{1-2}){2}
|
  [0-9]{1-2}\-[a-zA-Z]{3}\-[0-9]{2}
|
  [a-zA-Z]{3}(\.)?_[0-9]{1-2},?_[0-9]{4}
|
  [a-zA-Z]{3+}_[0-9]{1-2},?_[0-9]{4}
)
Time of any format [0-9]{1-2} (:[0-9]{2}){1-2} _? (am|AM|pm|PM)?
Domestic phone number (US & Canada) (
  (1\-)?[1-9][0-9]{2}\-
|
  (1\()?[1-9][0-9]{2}\)
|
  (1\.)?[1-9][0-9]{2}\.
|
  (1_)?[1-9][0-9]{2}_
)
[1-9] ( [0-9]{2}[\-_][0-9]{4} | [0-9]{6} )
Social security number (
  [1-9][0-9]{2}\-[0-9]{2}\-[0-9]{4}
|
  [1-9][0-9]{2}_[0-9]{2}_[0-9]{4}
|
  [1-9][0-9]{8}
)
IP address [1-9][0-9]{0-2} (\.(0|[1-9][0-9]{0-2})){3}
Email address (mailto:)?
[0-9a-zA-Z\_][0-9a-zA-Z\_\-]* (\.[0-9a-zA-Z\_][0-9a-zA-Z\_\-]*)*
@
(
  [1-9][0-9]{0-2} (\.(0|[1-9][0-9]{0-2})){3}
|
  (www\.|WWW\.|ftp\.|FTP\.){0} ([0-9a-zA-Z\_][0-9a-zA-Z\_\-]*\.)+ [a-zA-Z]{2-3}
)
HTTP address (
  https?:// (ftp\.|FTP\.){0} ([0-9a-zA-Z\_][0-9a-zA-Z\_\-]*\.)+ [a-zA-Z]{2-3}
|
  (www|WWW)\. ([0-9a-zA-Z\_][0-9a-zA-Z\_\-]*\.)+ [a-zA-Z]{2-3}
|
  (https?://)? [1-9][0-9]{0-2} (\.(0|[1-9][0-9]{0-2})){3}
)
(:[0-9]+)?
([/\?#][^\[\]\)\}>'"_$]*)?
FTP address (
  ftp://
  ([^/\?#\[\]@_$]+@)?
  (
    [1-9][0-9]{0-2} (\.(0|[1-9][0-9]{0-2})){3}
  |
    (www\.|WWW\.){0} ([0-9a-zA-Z\_][0-9a-zA-Z\_\-]*\.)+ [a-zA-Z]{2-3}
  )
|
  ([^/\?#\[\]@_$]+@)?
  (ftp|FTP)\. ([0-9a-zA-Z\_][0-9a-zA-Z\_\-]*\.)+ [a-zA-Z]{2-3}
)
(:[0-9]+)?
([/\?#][^\[\]\)\}>'"_$]*)?

 

 

Special Symbols | Examples

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This page was last modified on 10/24/2005.