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Regex

This document describes Perl regular expressions (RegEX). It outlines basic metacharacters like ^, $, ., *, +, ?, |, (), [], {}, \. It also covers repetition quantifiers, special characters like \t, \n, character classes [], matching examples, binding operators =~ and !~, and modifiers like /i, /g, /m, /s, /x. The goal is to provide an overview of the key concepts and syntax of Perl RegEX for pattern matching and text manipulation.

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oasisdesert
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44 views

Regex

This document describes Perl regular expressions (RegEX). It outlines basic metacharacters like ^, $, ., *, +, ?, |, (), [], {}, \. It also covers repetition quantifiers, special characters like \t, \n, character classes [], matching examples, binding operators =~ and !~, and modifiers like /i, /g, /m, /s, /x. The goal is to provide an overview of the key concepts and syntax of Perl RegEX for pattern matching and text manipulation.

Uploaded by

oasisdesert
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Perl RegEX

Metacharacters

^ beginning of string

$ end of string

. any character except newline

* match 0 or more times

+ match 1 or more times

? match 0 or 1 times; or: shortest match

| alternative

() grouping; “storing”

[] set of characters

{} repetition modifier

\ quote or special
Repetition / Quantifiers

a* zero or more a’s

a+ one or more a’s

a? zero or one a’s (i.e., optional a)

a{m} exactly m a’s

a{m,} at least m a’s

a{m,n} at least m but at most n a’s

repetition? same as repetition but the
shortest match is taken
Special notations with \
Single characters

\t tab

\n newline

\r return (CR)

\xhh character with hex. code hh
Zero-width assertions

\b “word” boundary

\B not a “word” boundary
Matching

\w matches any single character
classified as a “word” character
(alphanumeric or “_”)

\W matches any non-“word” character

\s matches any whitespace character
(space, tab, newline)

\S matches any non-whitespace
character

\d matches any digit character, equiv.
to [0-9]

\D matches any non-digit character
Character sets: specialities
inside [...]
Character sets

[characters] matches any of the
characters in the sequence

[x-y] matches any of the characters from
x to y (inclusively) in the ASCII code

[\-] matches the hyphen character “-”

[\n] matches the newline; other single
character denotations with \ apply
normally, too
Character sets

[^something] matches any character
except those that [something] denotes;
that is, immediately after the leading “[”,
the circumflex “^” means “not” applied to
all of the rest
Examples

abc abc (that exact character sequence,
but anywhere in the string)

^abc abc at the beginning of the string

abc$ abc at the end of the string

a|b either of a and b

^abc|abc$ the string abc at the
beginning or at the end of the string
Examples

ab{2,4}c an a followed by two, three or
four b’s followed by a c

ab{2,}c an a followed by at least two b’s
followed by a c

ab*c an a followed by any number (zero
or more) of b’s followed by a c

ab+c an a followed by one or more b’s
followed by a c
Examples

a.c an a followed by any single
character (not newline) followed by a c

a\.c a.c exactly

[abc] any one of a, b and c

[Aa]bc either of Abc and abc

[abc]+ any (nonempty) string of a’s, b’s
and c’s (such as a, abba, acbabcacaa)
Examples

[^abc]+ any (nonempty) string which
does not contain any of a, b and c (such
as defg)

\d\d any two decimal digits, such as 42;
same as \d{2}

\w+ a “word”: a nonempty sequence of
alphanumeric characters and low lines
(underscores), such as foo and 12bar8
and foo_1

100\s*mk the strings 100 and mk
optionally separated by any amount of
white space (spaces, tabs, newlines)
Examples

abc\b abc when followed by a word
boundary (e.g. in abc! but not in abcd)

perl\B perl when not followed by a word
boundary (e.g. in perlert but not in perl
stuff)
Basic RegEX operator in Perl
Binding operators

=~ True if the regex matches

!~ True if the regex doesn’t match
Other regEX Operators

The m// Operator – Match

The s/// Operator – Substitute

The tr/// Operator – Translate
Modifiers

/i Ignore case

/g Match globally (all)

/m Let ^ and $ match next to embedded \n

/s Let . match \n

/x Ignore most white space and allow
comments

/e Evaluate right hand side of s/// as an
expression

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