| This page lists the regular expression syntax accepted by RE2. |
| It also lists syntax accepted by PCRE, PERL, and VIM. |
| Grayed out expressions are not supported by RE2. |
|
| Single characters: |
. | any character, possibly including newline (s=true) |
[xyz] | character class |
[^xyz] | negated character class |
\d | Perl character class |
\D | negated Perl character class |
[[:alpha:]] | ASCII character class |
[[:^alpha:]] | negated ASCII character class |
\pN | Unicode character class (one-letter name) |
\p{Greek} | Unicode character class |
\PN | negated Unicode character class (one-letter name) |
\P{Greek} | negated Unicode character class |
|
| Composites: |
xy | x followed by y |
x|y | x or y (prefer x) |
|
| Repetitions: |
x* | zero or more x, prefer more |
x+ | one or more x, prefer more |
x? | zero or one x, prefer one |
x{n,m} | n or n+1 or ... or m x, prefer more |
x{n,} | n or more x, prefer more |
x{n} | exactly n x |
x*? | zero or more x, prefer fewer |
x+? | one or more x, prefer fewer |
x?? | zero or one x, prefer zero |
x{n,m}? | n or n+1 or ... or m x, prefer fewer |
x{n,}? | n or more x, prefer fewer |
x{n}? | exactly n x |
x{} | (≡ x*) VIM |
x{-} | (≡ x*?) VIM |
x{-n} | (≡ x{n}?) VIM |
x= | (≡ x?) VIM |
|
Implementation restriction: The counting forms x{n,m}, x{n,}, and x{n} |
| reject forms that create a minimum or maximum repetition count above 1000. |
| Unlimited repetitions are not subject to this restriction. |
|
| Possessive repetitions: |
x*+ | zero or more x, possessive |
x++ | one or more x, possessive |
x?+ | zero or one x, possessive |
x{n,m}+ | n or ... or m x, possessive |
x{n,}+ | n or more x, possessive |
x{n}+ | exactly n x, possessive |
|
| Grouping: |
(re) | numbered capturing group (submatch) |
(?P<name>re) | named & numbered capturing group (submatch) |
(?<name>re) | named & numbered capturing group (submatch) |
(?'name're) | named & numbered capturing group (submatch) |
(?:re) | non-capturing group |
(?flags) | set flags within current group; non-capturing |
(?flags:re) | set flags during re; non-capturing |
(?#text) | comment |
(?|x|y|z) | branch numbering reset |
(?>re) | possessive match of re |
re@> | possessive match of re VIM |
%(re) | non-capturing group VIM |
|
| Flags: |
i | case-insensitive (default false) |
m | multi-line mode: ^ and $ match begin/end line in addition to begin/end text (default false) |
s | let . match \n (default false) |
U | ungreedy: swap meaning of x* and x*?, x+ and x+?, etc (default false) |
Flag syntax is xyz (set) or -xyz (clear) or xy-z (set xy, clear z). |
|
| Empty strings: |
^ | at beginning of text or line (m=true) |
$ | at end of text (like \z not \Z) or line (m=true) |
\A | at beginning of text |
\b | at ASCII word boundary (\w on one side and \W, \A, or \z on the other) |
\B | not at ASCII word boundary |
\G | at beginning of subtext being searched PCRE |
\G | at end of last match PERL |
\Z | at end of text, or before newline at end of text |
\z | at end of text |
(?=re) | before text matching re |
(?!re) | before text not matching re |
(?<=re) | after text matching re |
(?<!re) | after text not matching re |
re& | before text matching re VIM |
re@= | before text matching re VIM |
re@! | before text not matching re VIM |
re@<= | after text matching re VIM |
re@<! | after text not matching re VIM |
\zs | sets start of match (= \K) VIM |
\ze | sets end of match VIM |
\%^ | beginning of file VIM |
\%$ | end of file VIM |
\%V | on screen VIM |
\%# | cursor position VIM |
\%'m | mark m position VIM |
\%23l | in line 23 VIM |
\%23c | in column 23 VIM |
\%23v | in virtual column 23 VIM |
|
| Escape sequences: |
\a | bell (≡ \007) |
\f | form feed (≡ \014) |
\t | horizontal tab (≡ \011) |
\n | newline (≡ \012) |
\r | carriage return (≡ \015) |
\v | vertical tab character (≡ \013) |
\* | literal *, for any punctuation character * |
\123 | octal character code (up to three digits) |
\x7F | hex character code (exactly two digits) |
\x{10FFFF} | hex character code |
\C | match a single byte even in UTF-8 mode |
\Q...\E | literal text ... even if ... has punctuation |
|
\1 | backreference |
\b | backspace (use \010) |
\cK | control char ^K (use \001 etc) |
\e | escape (use \033) |
\g1 | backreference |
\g{1} | backreference |
\g{+1} | backreference |
\g{-1} | backreference |
\g{name} | named backreference |
\g<name> | subroutine call |
\g'name' | subroutine call |
\k<name> | named backreference |
\k'name' | named backreference |
\lX | lowercase X |
\ux | uppercase x |
\L...\E | lowercase text ... |
\K | reset beginning of $0 |
\N{name} | named Unicode character |
\R | line break |
\U...\E | upper case text ... |
\X | extended Unicode sequence |
|
\%d123 | decimal character 123 VIM |
\%xFF | hex character FF VIM |
\%o123 | octal character 123 VIM |
\%u1234 | Unicode character 0x1234 VIM |
\%U12345678 | Unicode character 0x12345678 VIM |
|
| Character class elements: |
x | single character |
A-Z | character range (inclusive) |
\d | Perl character class |
[:foo:] | ASCII character class foo |
\p{Foo} | Unicode character class Foo |
\pF | Unicode character class F (one-letter name) |
|
| Named character classes as character class elements: |
[\d] | digits (≡ \d) |
[^\d] | not digits (≡ \D) |
[\D] | not digits (≡ \D) |
[^\D] | not not digits (≡ \d) |
[[:name:]] | named ASCII class inside character class (≡ [:name:]) |
[^[:name:]] | named ASCII class inside negated character class (≡ [:^name:]) |
[\p{Name}] | named Unicode property inside character class (≡ \p{Name}) |
[^\p{Name}] | named Unicode property inside negated character class (≡ \P{Name}) |
|
| Perl character classes (all ASCII-only): |
\d | digits (≡ [0-9]) |
\D | not digits (≡ [^0-9]) |
\s | whitespace (≡ [\t\n\f\r ]) |
\S | not whitespace (≡ [^\t\n\f\r ]) |
\w | word characters (≡ [0-9A-Za-z_]) |
\W | not word characters (≡ [^0-9A-Za-z_]) |
|
\h | horizontal space |
\H | not horizontal space |
\v | vertical space |
\V | not vertical space |
|
| ASCII character classes: |
[[:alnum:]] | alphanumeric (≡ [0-9A-Za-z]) |
[[:alpha:]] | alphabetic (≡ [A-Za-z]) |
[[:ascii:]] | ASCII (≡ [\x00-\x7F]) |
[[:blank:]] | blank (≡ [\t ]) |
[[:cntrl:]] | control (≡ [\x00-\x1F\x7F]) |
[[:digit:]] | digits (≡ [0-9]) |
[[:graph:]] | graphical (≡ [!-~] == [A-Za-z0-9!"#$%&'()*+,\-./:;<=>?@[\\\]^_`{|}~]) |
[[:lower:]] | lower case (≡ [a-z]) |
[[:print:]] | printable (≡ [ -~] == [ [:graph:]]) |
[[:punct:]] | punctuation (≡ [!-/:-@[-`{-~]) |
[[:space:]] | whitespace (≡ [\t\n\v\f\r ]) |
[[:upper:]] | upper case (≡ [A-Z]) |
[[:word:]] | word characters (≡ [0-9A-Za-z_]) |
[[:xdigit:]] | hex digit (≡ [0-9A-Fa-f]) |
|
| Unicode character class names--general category: |
C | other |
Cc | control |
Cf | format |
Cn | unassigned code points |
Co | private use |
Cs | surrogate |
L | letter |
LC | cased letter |
L& | cased letter |
Ll | lowercase letter |
Lm | modifier letter |
Lo | other letter |
Lt | titlecase letter |
Lu | uppercase letter |
M | mark |
Mc | spacing mark |
Me | enclosing mark |
Mn | non-spacing mark |
N | number |
Nd | decimal number |
Nl | letter number |
No | other number |
P | punctuation |
Pc | connector punctuation |
Pd | dash punctuation |
Pe | close punctuation |
Pf | final punctuation |
Pi | initial punctuation |
Po | other punctuation |
Ps | open punctuation |
S | symbol |
Sc | currency symbol |
Sk | modifier symbol |
Sm | math symbol |
So | other symbol |
Z | separator |
Zl | line separator |
Zp | paragraph separator |
Zs | space separator |
|
| Unicode character class names--scripts: |
| Adlam |
| Ahom |
| Anatolian_Hieroglyphs |
| Arabic |
| Armenian |
| Avestan |
| Balinese |
| Bamum |
| Bassa_Vah |
| Batak |
| Bengali |
| Bhaiksuki |
| Bopomofo |
| Brahmi |
| Braille |
| Buginese |
| Buhid |
| Canadian_Aboriginal |
| Carian |
| Caucasian_Albanian |
| Chakma |
| Cham |
| Cherokee |
| Chorasmian |
| Common |
| Coptic |
| Cuneiform |
| Cypriot |
| Cypro_Minoan |
| Cyrillic |
| Deseret |
| Devanagari |
| Dives_Akuru |
| Dogra |
| Duployan |
| Egyptian_Hieroglyphs |
| Elbasan |
| Elymaic |
| Ethiopic |
| Georgian |
| Glagolitic |
| Gothic |
| Grantha |
| Greek |
| Gujarati |
| Gunjala_Gondi |
| Gurmukhi |
| Han |
| Hangul |
| Hanifi_Rohingya |
| Hanunoo |
| Hatran |
| Hebrew |
| Hiragana |
| Imperial_Aramaic |
| Inherited |
| Inscriptional_Pahlavi |
| Inscriptional_Parthian |
| Javanese |
| Kaithi |
| Kannada |
| Katakana |
| Kayah_Li |
| Kharoshthi |
| Khitan_Small_Script |
| Khmer |
| Khojki |
| Khudawadi |
| Lao |
| Latin |
| Lepcha |
| Limbu |
| Linear_A |
| Linear_B |
| Lisu |
| Lycian |
| Lydian |
| Mahajani |
| Makasar |
| Malayalam |
| Mandaic |
| Manichaean |
| Marchen |
| Masaram_Gondi |
| Medefaidrin |
| Meetei_Mayek |
| Mende_Kikakui |
| Meroitic_Cursive |
| Meroitic_Hieroglyphs |
| Miao |
| Modi |
| Mongolian |
| Mro |
| Multani |
| Myanmar |
| Nabataean |
| Nandinagari |
| New_Tai_Lue |
| Newa |
| Nko |
| Nushu |
| Nyiakeng_Puachue_Hmong |
| Ogham |
| Ol_Chiki |
| Old_Hungarian |
| Old_Italic |
| Old_North_Arabian |
| Old_Permic |
| Old_Persian |
| Old_Sogdian |
| Old_South_Arabian |
| Old_Turkic |
| Old_Uyghur |
| Oriya |
| Osage |
| Osmanya |
| Pahawh_Hmong |
| Palmyrene |
| Pau_Cin_Hau |
| Phags_Pa |
| Phoenician |
| Psalter_Pahlavi |
| Rejang |
| Runic |
| Samaritan |
| Saurashtra |
| Sharada |
| Shavian |
| Siddham |
| SignWriting |
| Sinhala |
| Sogdian |
| Sora_Sompeng |
| Soyombo |
| Sundanese |
| Syloti_Nagri |
| Syriac |
| Tagalog |
| Tagbanwa |
| Tai_Le |
| Tai_Tham |
| Tai_Viet |
| Takri |
| Tamil |
| Tangsa |
| Tangut |
| Telugu |
| Thaana |
| Thai |
| Tibetan |
| Tifinagh |
| Tirhuta |
| Toto |
| Ugaritic |
| Vai |
| Vithkuqi |
| Wancho |
| Warang_Citi |
| Yezidi |
| Yi |
| Zanabazar_Square |
|
| Vim character classes: |
\i | identifier character VIM |
\I | \i except digits VIM |
\k | keyword character VIM |
\K | \k except digits VIM |
\f | file name character VIM |
\F | \f except digits VIM |
\p | printable character VIM |
\P | \p except digits VIM |
\s | whitespace character (≡ [ \t]) VIM |
\S | non-white space character (≡ [^ \t]) VIM |
\d | digits (≡ [0-9]) VIM |
\D | not \d VIM |
\x | hex digits (≡ [0-9A-Fa-f]) VIM |
\X | not \x VIM |
\o | octal digits (≡ [0-7]) VIM |
\O | not \o VIM |
\w | word character VIM |
\W | not \w VIM |
\h | head of word character VIM |
\H | not \h VIM |
\a | alphabetic VIM |
\A | not \a VIM |
\l | lowercase VIM |
\L | not lowercase VIM |
\u | uppercase VIM |
\U | not uppercase VIM |
\_x | \x plus newline, for any x VIM |
|
| Vim flags: |
\c | ignore case VIM |
\C | match case VIM |
\m | magic VIM |
\M | nomagic VIM |
\v | verymagic VIM |
\V | verynomagic VIM |
\Z | ignore differences in Unicode combining characters VIM |
|
| Magic: |
(?{code}) | arbitrary Perl code PERL |
(??{code}) | postponed arbitrary Perl code PERL |
(?n) | recursive call to regexp capturing group n |
(?+n) | recursive call to relative group +n |
(?-n) | recursive call to relative group -n |
(?C) | PCRE callout PCRE |
(?R) | recursive call to entire regexp (≡ (?0)) |
(?&name) | recursive call to named group |
(?P=name) | named backreference |
(?P>name) | recursive call to named group |
(?(cond)true|false) | conditional branch |
(?(cond)true) | conditional branch |
(*ACCEPT) | make regexps more like Prolog |
(*COMMIT) | |
(*F) | |
(*FAIL) | |
(*MARK) | |
(*PRUNE) | |
(*SKIP) | |
(*THEN) | |
(*ANY) | set newline convention |
(*ANYCRLF) | |
(*CR) | |
(*CRLF) | |
(*LF) | |
(*BSR_ANYCRLF) | set \R convention PCRE |
(*BSR_UNICODE) | PCRE |
|