\
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Marks the next character as either a special character or a literal. For example, “n“matches the character “n”. “\n” matches a newline character. The sequence “\\” matches “\” and “\(” matches “(”.
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^
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Matches the beginning of input.
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$
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Matches the end of input.
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*
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Matches the preceding character zero or more times. For example, "zo*" matches "z", “zo”, “zoo”, “zooo”, and so on.
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+
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Matches the preceding character one or more times. For example, "zo+" matches "zoo" but not "z".
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?
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Matches the preceding character zero or one time. For example, "a?ve?" matches the "ve" in "never".
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.
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Matches any single character except a newline character.
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(pattern)
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Matches pattern and remembers the match. The matched substring can be retrieved from the resulting Matches collection, using $1..$n. To match parentheses characters ( ), use "\(" or "\)".
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x|y
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Matches either x or y. For example, "z|wood" matches "z" or "wood". "(z|w)oo" matches "zoo" or "wood".
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{n}
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n is a nonnegative integer. Matches exactly n times. For example, "o{2}" does not match the "o" in "Bob," but matches the first two o's in "foooood".
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{n,}
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n is a nonnegative integer. Matches at least n times. For example, "o{2,}" does not match the "o" in "Bob" and matches all the o's in "foooood." "o{1,}" is equivalent to "o+". "o{0,}" is equivalent to "o*".
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{n,m}
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m and n are nonnegative integers. Matches at least n and at most m times. For example, "o{1,3}" matches the first three o's in "fooooood." "o{0,1}" is equivalent to "o?".
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[xyz]
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A character set. Matches any one of the enclosed characters. For example, "[abc]" matches the "a" in "plain".
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[^xyz]
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A negative character set. Matches any character not enclosed. For example, "[^abc]" matches the "p" in "plain".
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[a-z]
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A range of characters. Matches any character in the specified range. For example, "[a-z]" matches any lowercase alphabetic character in the range "a" through "z".
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[^m-z]
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A negative range characters. Matches any character not in the specified range. For example, "[m-z]" matches any character not in the range "m" through "z".
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\b
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Matches a word boundary, that is, the position between a word and a space. For example, "er\b" matches the "er" in "never" but not the "er" in "verb".
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\B
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Matches a non-word boundary. "ea*r\B" matches the "ear" in "never early".
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\d
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Matches a digit character. Equivalent to [0-9].
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\D
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Matches a non-digit character. Equivalent to [^0-9].
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\f
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Matches a form-feed character.
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\n
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Matches a newline character.
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\r
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Matches a carriage return character.
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\s
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Matches any white space including space, tab, form-feed, etc. Equivalent to “[ \f\n\r\t\v]”.
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\S
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Matches any nonwhite space character. Equivalent to "[^ \f\n\r\t\v]".
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\t
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Matches a tab character.
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\v
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Matches a vertical tab character.
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\w
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Matches any word character including underscore. Equivalent to "[A-Za-z0-9_]".
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\W
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Matches any non-word character. Equivalent to "[^A-Za-z0-9_]".
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\num
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Matches num, where num is a positive integer. A reference back to remembered matches. For example, "(.)\1" matches two consecutive identical characters.
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\n
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Matches n, where n is an octal escape value. Octal escape values must be 1, 2, or 3 digits long. For example, "\11" and "\011" both match a tab character. "\0011" is the equivalent of "\001" & "1". Octal escape values must not exceed 256. If they do, only the first two digits comprise the expression. Allows ASCII codes to be used in regular expressions.
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\xn
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Matches n, where n is a hexadecimal escape value. Hexadecimal escape values must be exactly two digits long. For example, "\x41" matches "A". "\x041" is equivalent to "\x04" & "1". Allows ASCII codes to be used in regular expressions.
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