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Paul Wankadia edited this page Jan 12, 2016 · 25 revisions

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.

kinds of single-character expressions examples
any character, possibly including newline (s=true) .
character class [xyz]
negated character class [^xyz]
Perl character class (link) \d
negated Perl character class \D
ASCII character class [[:alpha:]]
negated ASCII character class [[:^alpha:]]
Unicode character class (one-letter name) \pN
Unicode character class \p{Greek}
negated Unicode character class (one-letter name) \PN
negated Unicode character class \P{Greek}
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*) (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
x{-} (≡ x*?) (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
x{-n} (≡ x{n}?) (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
x= (≡ x?) (NOT SUPPORTED) 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 (NOT SUPPORTED)
x++ one or more x, possessive (NOT SUPPORTED)
x?+ zero or one x, possessive (NOT SUPPORTED)
x{n,m}+ n or ... or m x, possessive (NOT SUPPORTED)
x{n,}+ n or more x, possessive (NOT SUPPORTED)
x{n}+ exactly n x, possessive (NOT SUPPORTED)
Grouping
(re) numbered capturing group (submatch)
(?P<name>re) named & numbered capturing group (submatch)
(?<name>re) named & numbered capturing group (submatch) (NOT SUPPORTED)
(?'name're) named & numbered capturing group (submatch) (NOT SUPPORTED)
(?:re) non-capturing group
(?flags) set flags within current group; non-capturing
(?flags:re) set flags during re; non-capturing
(?#text) comment (NOT SUPPORTED)
(?|x|y|z) branch numbering reset (NOT SUPPORTED)
(?>re) possessive match of re (NOT SUPPORTED)
re@> possessive match of re (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
%(re) non-capturing group (NOT SUPPORTED) 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 (NOT SUPPORTED) PCRE
\G at end of last match (NOT SUPPORTED) PERL
\Z at end of text, or before newline at end of text (NOT SUPPORTED)
\z at end of text
(?=re) before text matching re (NOT SUPPORTED)
(?!re) before text not matching re (NOT SUPPORTED)
(?<=re) after text matching re (NOT SUPPORTED)
(?<!re) after text not matching re (NOT SUPPORTED)
re& before text matching re (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
re@= before text matching re (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
re@! before text not matching re (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
re@<= after text matching re (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
re@<! after text not matching re (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
\zs sets start of match (= \K) (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
\ze sets end of match (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
\%^ beginning of file (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
\%$ end of file (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
\%V on screen (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
\%# cursor position (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
\%'m mark m position (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
\%23l in line 23 (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
\%23c in column 23 (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
\%23v in virtual column 23 (NOT SUPPORTED) 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 (NOT SUPPORTED)
\b backspace (NOT SUPPORTED) (use \010)
\cK control char ^K (NOT SUPPORTED) (use \001 etc)
\e escape (NOT SUPPORTED) (use \033)
\g1 backreference (NOT SUPPORTED)
\g{1} backreference (NOT SUPPORTED)
\g{+1} backreference (NOT SUPPORTED)
\g{-1} backreference (NOT SUPPORTED)
\g{name} named backreference (NOT SUPPORTED)
\g<name> subroutine call (NOT SUPPORTED)
\g'name' subroutine call (NOT SUPPORTED)
\k<name> named backreference (NOT SUPPORTED)
\k'name' named backreference (NOT SUPPORTED)
\lX lowercase X (NOT SUPPORTED)
\ux uppercase x (NOT SUPPORTED)
\L...\E lowercase text ... (NOT SUPPORTED)
\K reset beginning of $0 (NOT SUPPORTED)
\N{name} named Unicode character (NOT SUPPORTED)
\R line break (NOT SUPPORTED)
\U...\E upper case text ... (NOT SUPPORTED)
\X extended Unicode sequence (NOT SUPPORTED)
\%d123 decimal character 123 (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
\%xFF hex character FF (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
\%o123 octal character 123 (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
\%u1234 Unicode character 0x1234 (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
\%U12345678 Unicode character 0x12345678 (NOT SUPPORTED) 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 (NOT SUPPORTED)
\H not horizontal space (NOT SUPPORTED)
\v vertical space (NOT SUPPORTED)
\V not vertical space (NOT SUPPORTED)
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 (NOT SUPPORTED)
Co private use
Cs surrogate
L letter
LC cased letter (NOT SUPPORTED)
L& cased letter (NOT SUPPORTED)
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
Arabic Arabic
Armenian Armenian
Balinese Balinese
Bamum Bamum
Batak Batak
Bengali Bengali
Bopomofo Bopomofo
Brahmi Brahmi
Braille Braille
Buginese Buginese
Buhid Buhid
Canadian_Aboriginal Canadian Aboriginal
Carian Carian
Chakma Chakma
Cham Cham
Cherokee Cherokee
Common characters not specific to one script
Coptic Coptic
Cuneiform Cuneiform
Cypriot Cypriot
Cyrillic Cyrillic
Deseret Deseret
Devanagari Devanagari
Egyptian_Hieroglyphs Egyptian Hieroglyphs
Ethiopic Ethiopic
Georgian Georgian
Glagolitic Glagolitic
Gothic Gothic
Greek Greek
Gujarati Gujarati
Gurmukhi Gurmukhi
Han Han
Hangul Hangul
Hanunoo Hanunoo
Hebrew Hebrew
Hiragana Hiragana
Imperial_Aramaic Imperial Aramaic
Inherited inherit script from previous character
Inscriptional_Pahlavi Inscriptional Pahlavi
Inscriptional_Parthian Inscriptional Parthian
Javanese Javanese
Kaithi Kaithi
Kannada Kannada
Katakana Katakana
Kayah_Li Kayah Li
Kharoshthi Kharoshthi
Khmer Khmer
Lao Lao
Latin Latin
Lepcha Lepcha
Limbu Limbu
Linear_B Linear B
Lycian Lycian
Lydian Lydian
Malayalam Malayalam
Mandaic Mandaic
Meetei_Mayek Meetei Mayek
Meroitic_Cursive Meroitic Cursive
Meroitic_Hieroglyphs Meroitic Hieroglyphs
Miao Miao
Mongolian Mongolian
Myanmar Myanmar
New_Tai_Lue New Tai Lue (aka Simplified Tai Lue)
Nko Nko
Ogham Ogham
Ol_Chiki Ol Chiki
Old_Italic Old Italic
Old_Persian Old Persian
Old_South_Arabian Old South Arabian
Old_Turkic Old Turkic
Oriya Oriya
Osmanya Osmanya
Phags_Pa 'Phags Pa
Phoenician Phoenician
Rejang Rejang
Runic Runic
Saurashtra Saurashtra
Sharada Sharada
Shavian Shavian
Sinhala Sinhala
Sora_Sompeng Sora Sompeng
Sundanese Sundanese
Syloti_Nagri Syloti Nagri
Syriac Syriac
Tagalog Tagalog
Tagbanwa Tagbanwa
Tai_Le Tai Le
Tai_Tham Tai Tham
Tai_Viet Tai Viet
Takri Takri
Tamil Tamil
Telugu Telugu
Thaana Thaana
Thai Thai
Tibetan Tibetan
Tifinagh Tifinagh
Ugaritic Ugaritic
Vai Vai
Yi Yi
Vim character classes
\i identifier character (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
\I \i except digits (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
\k keyword character (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
\K \k except digits (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
\f file name character (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
\F \f except digits (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
\p printable character (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
\P \p except digits (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
\s whitespace character (≡ [ \t]) (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
\S non-white space character (≡ [^ \t]) (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
\d digits (≡ [0-9]) VIM
\D not \d VIM
\x hex digits (≡ [0-9A-Fa-f]) (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
\X not \x (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
\o octal digits (≡ [0-7]) (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
\O not \o (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
\w word character VIM
\W not \w VIM
\h head of word character (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
\H not \h (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
\a alphabetic (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
\A not \a (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
\l lowercase (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
\L not lowercase (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
\u uppercase (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
\U not uppercase (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
\_x \x plus newline, for any x (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
\c ignore case (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
\C match case (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
\m magic (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
\M nomagic (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
\v verymagic (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
\V verynomagic (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
\Z ignore differences in Unicode combining characters (NOT SUPPORTED) VIM
Magic
(?{code}) arbitrary Perl code (NOT SUPPORTED) PERL
(??{code}) postponed arbitrary Perl code (NOT SUPPORTED) PERL
(?n) recursive call to regexp capturing group n (NOT SUPPORTED)
(?+n) recursive call to relative group +n (NOT SUPPORTED)
(?-n) recursive call to relative group -n (NOT SUPPORTED)
(?C) PCRE callout (NOT SUPPORTED) PCRE
(?R) recursive call to entire regexp (≡ (?0)) (NOT SUPPORTED)
(?&name) recursive call to named group (NOT SUPPORTED)
(?P=name) named backreference (NOT SUPPORTED)
(?P>name) recursive call to named group (NOT SUPPORTED)
(?(cond)true|false) conditional branch (NOT SUPPORTED)
(?(cond)true) conditional branch (NOT SUPPORTED)
(*ACCEPT) make regexps more like Prolog (NOT SUPPORTED)
(*COMMIT) (NOT SUPPORTED)
(*F) (NOT SUPPORTED)
(*FAIL) (NOT SUPPORTED)
(*MARK) (NOT SUPPORTED)
(*PRUNE) (NOT SUPPORTED)
(*SKIP) (NOT SUPPORTED)
(*THEN) (NOT SUPPORTED)
(*ANY) set newline convention (NOT SUPPORTED)
(*ANYCRLF) (NOT SUPPORTED)
(*CR) (NOT SUPPORTED)
(*CRLF) (NOT SUPPORTED)
(*LF) (NOT SUPPORTED)
(*BSR_ANYCRLF) set \R convention (NOT SUPPORTED) PCRE
(*BSR_UNICODE) (NOT SUPPORTED) PCRE
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