๐งช RegEx Tester
๐ป Code Examples
Generated code examples for your regex pattern in different programming languages:
๐ Common Patterns Library
Click on any pattern to use it in the tester above:
๐ฏ Complete RegEx Guide
What is a Regular Expression?
Regular expressions (RegEx) are powerful pattern-matching tools used for validating, searching, and manipulating text. Our RegEx validator helps you test patterns instantly with real-time feedback and multi-language code generation.
Common Use Cases
- Email Validation: Verify email address formats
- Phone Numbers: Validate international phone formats
- Data Extraction: Parse logs and structured text
- Input Sanitization: Clean user input data
- Search & Replace: Complex text transformations
Supported Languages
Generate optimized code for JavaScript, Python, Java, C#, Ruby, Go, and Rust with proper syntax and best practices for each language.
Key Features
- Real-time Testing: Instant pattern validation
- Syntax Highlighting: Visual match highlighting
- Code Generation: Multi-language code export
Advanced RegEx Techniques
Lookahead & Lookbehind
Use positive lookahead (?=...)
and
negative lookahead (?!...)
to match
patterns based on what follows. Lookbehind
assertions (?<=...)
and
(?<!...)
check what precedes the
match.
Capture Groups
Parentheses ()
create capture
groups to extract specific parts of matches. Use
non-capturing groups (?:...)
when
you need grouping without capturing.
Character Classes
Square brackets [...]
define
character sets. Use ranges like
[a-z]
, [0-9]
, or
negate with [^...]
to match
anything except specified characters.
Quantifiers
Control repetition with *
(zero or
more), +
(one or more),
?
(zero or one),
{n}
(exactly n),
{n,}
(n or more),
{n,m}
(between n and m).
Common RegEx Patterns Explained
Email Validation
^[a-zA-Z0-9._%+-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9.-]+\.[a-zA-Z]{2,}$
Matches valid email addresses with alphanumeric characters, common symbols, domain names, and top-level domains of 2+ characters.
Phone Numbers
^\+?[1-9]\d{1,14}$
International phone format with optional country code (+), starting with 1-9, followed by 1-14 digits total.
URL Validation
^https?:\/\/(www\.)?[-a-zA-Z0-9@:%._\+~#=]{1,256}\.[a-zA-Z0-9()]{1,6}\b
Validates HTTP/HTTPS URLs with optional www, domain names up to 256 characters, and various URL-safe characters.
Password Strength
^(?=.*[a-z])(?=.*[A-Z])(?=.*\d)(?=.*[@$!%*?&])[A-Za-z\d@$!%*?&]{8,}$
Ensures passwords have at least 8 characters with lowercase, uppercase, digit, and special character requirements.
Performance Tips & Best Practices
Optimization Strategies
- Anchor patterns: Use ^ and $ to avoid unnecessary searching
- Specific before general: Put specific alternatives first in OR groups
- Avoid catastrophic backtracking: Be careful with nested quantifiers
- Use atomic groups: (?>...) prevents backtracking when possible
Testing Guidelines
- Test edge cases: Empty strings, special characters, unicode
- Validate inputs: Always validate user input against expected patterns
- Consider localization: Different regions may have different formats
- Performance testing: Test with large texts to ensure efficiency
Security Considerations
- Input sanitization: RegEx alone isn't sufficient for security
- ReDoS attacks: Avoid patterns vulnerable to denial of service
- Escape user input: When building patterns from user data
- Validate server-side: Never trust client-side validation alone
Language Differences
- Flavor variations: PCRE, POSIX, JavaScript have differences
- Unicode support: Varies between implementations
- Escape sequences: \Q \E literal quoting in some flavors
- Named groups: (?P<name>...) syntax varies by language
Real-World Applications
Web Development
Form validation, URL routing, template processing, and content parsing. RegEx is essential for validating user inputs, processing markdown, and extracting data from HTML/XML documents.
Data Processing
Log file analysis, CSV parsing, data cleaning, and format conversion. Extract structured information from unstructured text data, clean datasets, and transform data formats.
System Administration
Configuration file parsing, log monitoring, automated scripting, and system diagnostics. Parse configuration files, monitor system logs for errors, and automate routine maintenance tasks.
Text Editors & IDEs
Search and replace operations, syntax highlighting, code refactoring, and find/replace across projects. Most modern editors support RegEx for powerful text manipulation and code analysis.
Master Regular Expressions with Our Comprehensive Tool
Whether you're a beginner learning pattern matching or an expert developer optimizing complex expressions, our RegEx validator provides the tools and insights you need to work efficiently with regular expressions.
Professional regex testing โข Multi-language code generation โข Comprehensive pattern library โข Real-time validation