12/2/11 Regular Epressions Cheat Sheet

1/2 krijnhoetmer.nl/stuff/rege/cheat-sheet/
Regular Epressions Cheat Sheet
^ The pattern has to appear at the begInnIng of a strIng. ^cat matches any strIng that begIns wIth cat
$ The pattern has to appear at the end of a strIng. cat$ matches any strIng that ends wIth cat
. |atches any character. cat. matches catT and cat2 but not catty
[] 8racket expressIon. |atches one of any characters enclosed. gr[ae]y matches gray or grey
[^]
Negates a bracket expressIon. |atches one of any characters EXCEPT those
enclosed.
1[^02] matches 13 but not 10 or 12
[] Fange. |atches any characters wIthIn the range. [19] matches any sIngle dIgIt EXCEPT 0
? PreceedIng Item must match one or zero tImes.
colou?r matches color or colour but not
colouur
+ PreceedIng Item must match one or more tImes. be+ matches be or bee but not b
* PreceedIng Item must match zero or more tImes. be* matches b or be or beeeeeeeeee
() Parentheses. Creates a substrIng or Item that metacharacters can be applIed toa(bee)?t matches at or abeet but not abet
n 8ound. SpecIfIes exact number of tImes for the preceedIng Item to match. [09]3 matches any three dIgIts
n, 8ound. SpecIfIes mInImum number of tImes for the preceedIng Item to match. [09]3, matches any three or more dIgIts
n,m
8ound. SpecIfIes mInImum and maxImum number of tImes for the preceedIng
Item to match.
[09]3,5 matches any three, four, or fIve
dIgIts
AlternatIon. Dne of the alternatIves has to match.
July(first1st1) wIll match July1st but
not July2
POSIX Character Classes
[:alnum:] alphanumerIc character [[:alnum:]]3 matches any three letters or numbers, lIke 7Ds
[:alpha:] alphabetIc character, any case
[[:alpha:]]5 matches fIve alphabetIc characters, any case,
lIke aBcDe
[:blank:] space and tab
[[:blank:]]3,5 matches any three, four, or fIve spaces and
tabs
[:digit:] dIgIts
[[:digit:]]3,5 matches any three, four, or fIve dIgIts, lIke 3,
05, 489
[:lower:] lowercase alphabetIcs [[:lower:]] matches a but not A
[:punct:] punctuatIon characters [[:punct:]] matches ! or . or , but not a or 3
[:space:]
all whItespace characters, IncludIng newlIne and
carrIage return
[[:space:]] matches any space, tab, newlIne, or carrIage
return
[:upper:] uppercase alphabetIcs [[:upper:]] matches A but not a
Perl-Stle Metacharacters
// 0efault delImIters for pattern /colou?r/ matches color or colour
i Append to pattern to specIfy a case InsensItIve match /colou?r/i matches COLOR or Colour
\b A word boundary, the spot between word (\w) and nonword (\W) characters /\bfred\b/i matches Fred but not Alfred or Frederick
\B A nonword boundary /fred\B/i matches Frederick but not Fred
\d A sIngle dIgIt character /a\db/i matches a2b but not acb
\D A sIngle nondIgIt character /a\Db/i matches aCb but not a2b
\n The newlIne character. (ASC 10) /\n/ matches a newlIne
\r The carrIage return character. (ASC 1J) /\r/ matches a carrIage return
\s A sIngle whItespace character /a\sb/ matches ab but not ab
12/2/11 Regular Epressions Cheat Sheet
2/2 krijnhoetmer.nl/stuff/rege/cheat-sheet/
\S A single non-hitespace character /a\Sb/ matches a2b but not ab
\t The tab character. (ASCII 9) /\t/ matches a tab.
\ A single ord character - alphanumeric and underscore /\/ matches 1 or _ but not ?
\W A single non-ord character /a\Wb/i matches a!b but not a2b