View Category
Regex
Matching

Check if a string matches a regular expression

Display "ok" if "Hello" matches /[A-Z][a-z]+/
perl
print 'ok' if ('Hello' =~ /[A-Z][a-z]+/);
java
if ("Hello".matches("[A-Z][a-z]+")) {
System.out.println("ok");
}
cpp
if ((gcnew Regex("[A-Z][a-z]+"))->IsMatch("Hello")) Console::WriteLine("ok");
if (Regex::IsMatch("Hello", "[A-Z][a-z]+")) Console::WriteLine("ok");
Regex^ rx = gcnew Regex("[A-Z][a-z]+");
if (rx->IsMatch("Hello")) Console::WriteLine("ok");
cmatch what;
if (regex_match("Hello", what, regex("[A-Z][a-z]+")))
cout << "ok" << endl;

Check if a string matches with groups

Display "two" if "one two three" matches /one (.*) three/
perl
print $1 if "one two three"=~/^one (.*) three$/
java
Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("one (.*) three");
Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher("one two three");
if (matcher.matches()) {
System.out.println(matcher.group(1));
}
cpp
Match^ match = Regex::Match("one two three", "one (.*) three");
if (match->Success) Console::WriteLine("{0}", match->Groups[1]->Captures[0]);
cmatch what;
if (regex_match("one two three", what, regex("one (.*) three")))
cout << what[1] << endl;
Searching

Check if a string contains a match to a regular expression

Display "ok" if "abc 123 @#$" matches /\d+/
perl
print "ok" if ("abc 123 @#\$" =~ m/\d+/)
java
Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("\\d+");
Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(text);
if (matcher.find()) {
System.out.println("ok");
}
cpp
if (Regex::IsMatch("abc 123 @#$", "\\d+")) Console::WriteLine("ok");

Loop through a string matching a regex and performing an action for each match

Create a list [fish1,cow3,boat4] when matching "(fish):1 sausage (cow):3 tree (boat):4" with regex /\((\w+)\):(\d+)/
perl
while ($text =~ /\((\w+)\):(\d+)/g) {
push @list, "$1$2"
}
java
List list = new ArrayList();
Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("\\((\\w+)\\):(\\d+)");
Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(text);
while(matcher.find()) {
list.add(matcher.group(1)+matcher.group(2));
}
cpp
Match^ match = Regex::Match("(fish):1 sausage (cow):3 tree (boat):4", "\\((\\w+)\\):(\\d+)");

while (match->Success)
{
list->Add(match->Groups[1]->Captures[0]->ToString() + match->Groups[2]->Captures[0]->ToString());
match = match->NextMatch();
}
Replacing

Replace the first regex match in a string with a static string

Transform "Red Green Blue" into "R*d Green Blue" by replacing /e/ with "*"
perl
$text =~s/e/*/;
java
String replaced = "Red Green Blue".replaceFirst("e", "*");
cpp
String^ Replaced = (gcnew Regex("e"))->Replace("Red Green Blue", "*", 1);

Replace all regex matches in a string with a static string

Transform "She sells sea shells" into "She X X shells" by replacing /se\w+/ with "X"
perl
$text = "She sells sea shells";
$text =~ s/se\w+/X/g;
java
String replaced = text.replaceAll("se\\w+", "X");
cpp
String^ Replaced = (gcnew Regex("se\\w+"))->Replace("She sells sea shells", "X");
String^ Replaced = Regex::Replace("She sells sea shells", "se\\w+", "X");

Replace all regex matches in a string with a dynamic string

Transform "The {Quick} Brown {Fox}" into "The kciuQ Brown xoF" by reversing words in braces using the regex /\{(\w+)\}/.
perl
$text = "The {Quick} Brown {Fox}";
$text =~ s/\{(\w+)\}/reverse($1)/ge;
java
Matcher m = Pattern.compile("\\{(\\w+)\\}").matcher("The {Quick} Brown {Fox}");
StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer(32), rsb = new StringBuffer(8);

while (m.find())
{
rsb.replace(0, rsb.length(), m.group(1)); rsb.reverse(); m.appendReplacement(sb, rsb.toString());
}
m.appendTail(sb);
cpp
String^ Replaced = (gcnew Regex("{(\\w+)}"))->Replace("The {Quick} Brown {Fox}", gcnew MatchEvaluator(&RegRep::RepGroup));
String^ Replaced = Regex::Replace("The {Quick} Brown {Fox}", "{(\\w+)}", gcnew MatchEvaluator(&RegRep::RepGroup));