Regex Python Cheat Sheet



Special characters

.Default: Match any character except newline.DOTALL: Match any character including newline^

POPULAR PYTHON RE MODULE FUNCTIONS re.findall(A, B) Matches all instances of an expression A in a string B and returns them in a list. Data Science Cheat Sheet Python Regular Expressions LEARN DATA SCIENCE ONLINE Start Learning For Free - www.dataquest.io LEARN DATA SCIENCE ONLINE. Pythex is a quick way to test your Python regular expressions. Try writing one or test the example. Match result: Match captures: Regular expression cheatsheet Special characters escape special characters. Matches any character ^ matches beginning of string $ matches end of string 5b-d. Python Regex Cheat Sheet Last Updated: 24 Jan, 2021 Regex or Regular Expressions are an important part of Python Programming or any other Programming Language. It is used for searching and even replacing the specified text pattern. Regular Expressions Cheat Sheet by DaveChild - Cheatography.com Created Date: 4237Z.

Default: Match the start of a string^MULTILINE: Match immediatly after each newline$Match the end of a string$MULTILINE: Also match before a newline*Match 0 or more repeti­tions of RE+Match 1 or more repeti­tions of RE?Match 0 or 1 repeti­tions of RE*?, *+, ??Match non-greedy as few characters as possible{m}Match exactly m copies of the previous RE{m,n}Match from m to n repeti­tions of RE{m,n}?Match non-greedyEscape special characters[]Match a set of characters|RE1RE2: Match either RE1 or RE2 non-greedy(...)Match RE inside parant­heses and indicate start and end of a groupWith RE is the resulting regular expression.
Special characters must be escaped with if it should match the character literally

Methods of 're' module

re.compile(
pattern,
flags=0)Compile a regular expression pattern into a regular expression object. Can be used with match(), search() and othersre.search(
pattern,
string,
flags=0Search through string matching the first location of the RE. Returns a match object or Nonere.match(
pattern,
string,
flags=0)If zero or more characters at the beginning of a string match pattern return a match object or Nonere.fullmatch(
pattern,
string

Regex Python Cheat Sheet

,
flags=0)If the whole string matches the pattern return a match object or Nonere.split(
pattern,
string,
maxsplit=0,
flags=0)Split string by the occurr­ences of patternmaxsplit times if non-zero. Returns a Pythonlist of all groups.re.findall(
pattern,
string,
flags=0
)Return all non-ov­erl­apping matches of pattern in string as list of strings.re.finditer(
pattern,
string,
flags=0
)Return an iter­ator yielding match objects over all non-ov­erl­apping matches for the pattern in stringre.sub(
pattern,
repl,
string,
count=0,
flags=0
)Return the string obtained by replacing the leftmost non-ov­erl­apping occurr­ences of pattern in string by the repla­cementrepl. Cheatrepl can be a function.re.subn(
pattern,
repl,
string,
count=0,
flags=0
)Like sub but return a tuple (new_stringRegex Python Cheat Sheet, number_of_subs_made)re.escape(
pattern)Escape special characters in patternre.p­urg­e()Clear the regular expression cache

Raw String Notation

In raw string notation r't­ext­' there is no need to escape the backslash character again.
>>> re.mat­ch(­r'W­(.)­1­W', ' ff ')
<r­e.Match object; span=(0, 4), match=' ff '>
>>> re.mat­ch(­'­W­(.)­1­W­', ' ff ')
<r­e.Match object; span=(0, 4), match=' ff '>

Reference

https:­//d­ocs.py­tho­n.o­rg/­3/h­owt­o/r­ege­x.htmlhttps:­//d­ocs.py­tho­n.o­rg/­3/l­ibr­ary­/re.html

Extensions

(?...)This is the start of an extension(?aiLmsux)The letters set the corres­pondig flags See flags(?:...)A non-ca­pturing version of regular parant­heses(?P<na­me>...)Like regular paranthes but with a named group(?P=name)A backre­ference to a named group(?#...)A comment(?=...)lookahead assert­ion: Matches if ... matches next without consuming the string(?!...)negative lookahead assert­ion: Matches if ... doesn't match next(?<­=....)positive lookbehind assert­ion: Match if the current position in the string is preceded by a match for ... that ends the current position(?<­!...)negative lookbehind assert­ion: Match if the current position in the string is not preceded by a match for ...(?(id/name)yes-pattern|no-pattern)Match with yes-p­attern if the group with gived id or name exists and with no-pa­ttern if not

Match objects

Match.expand(
template)Return the string obtained by doing backslash substi­tution on templ­ate, as done by the sub() methodMatch.group(
[group1,...])Returns one or more subgroups of the match. 1 Argument returns string and more arguments return a tuple.Match.__getitem__(
g)Access groups with m[0], m[1] ...Match.groups(
default=None)Return a tuple containing all the subgroups of the matchMatch.groupdict(
default=None)Return a dict­ion­ary containing all the named subgroups of the match, keyed by the subgroup name.Match.start(
[group]
Match.end(
[group])Return the indices of the start and end of the substring matched by groupMatch.span(Regex Python Cheat Sheet
[group])For a match m, return the 2-tuple (m.start(group) m.end(group))Match.­posThe value of pos which was passed to the sear­ch() or matc­h() method of the regex objectMatch.­e­ndposLikewise but the value of endposMatch.­l­ast­indexThe integer index of the last matched capturing group, or None.Match.­l­ast­groupThe name of the last matched capturing group or NoneMatch.­reThe regular expression object whose matc­h() or sear­ch() method produced this match instanceMatch.­s­tringThe string passed to matc­h() or sear­ch()

Special escape characters

AMatch only at the start of the stringbMatch the empty string at the beginning or end of a wordBMatch the empty string when not at the beginning or end of a worddMatch any Unic­ode decimal digit this includes [0-9]DMatch any character which is not a decimal digitsMatch Unic­ode white space characters which includes [ tnr­fv]SMatches any character which is not a whitespace character. The opposite of swMatch Unic­ode word characters including [a-zA-­Z0-9_]WMatch the opposite of wZMatch only at the end of a string

Regular Expression Objects

Pattern.search(
string[,
pos[,
endpos]])See re.­sea­rch­()Cheat. pos gives an index where to start the search. endpos limits how far the string will be searched.Pattern.match(
string[,
pos[,
endpos]])Likewise but see re.­mat­ch()Pattern.fullmatch(
string[,
pos[,
endpos]])Likewise but see re.­ful­lma­tch­()Pattern.split(
string,
maxsplit=0
)Identical to re.­spl­it()Pattern.findall(
string[,
pos[,
endpos]])Similar to re.­fin­dal­l() but with additional parameters pos and endposPattern.finditer(
string[,
pos[,
endpos]])Similar to re.­fin­dit­er() but with additional parameters pos and endposPattern.sub(
repl,
string,
count=0
)Identical to re.­sub­()Pattern.subn(
repl,
string,
count=0
)Identical to re.­sub­n()Patter­n.­fl­agsThe regex matching flags.Patter­n.­gr­oupsThe number of capturing groups in the patternPattern.groupindexA dictionary mapping any symbolic group names to group membersPatter­n.­pa­tternThe pattern string from which the pattern object was compiledThese objects are returned by the re.­com­pil­e() method

Flags

ASCII, AASCII-only matching in w, b, s and dIGNORECASE, Iignore caseLOCALE, Ldo a local-­aware matchMULTILINE, Mmultiline matching, affecting ^ and $DOTALL, Sdot matches alluunicode matching (just in (?aiLm­sux))VERBOSE, XverboseFlags are used in (?aiLmsux-imsx:...) or (?aiLmsux) or can be accessed with re.FLAG. In the first form flags are set or removed.
This is useful if you wish to include the flags as part of the regular expression, instead of passing a flag argument to the re.compile() function
The tables below are a reference to basic regex. While reading the rest of the site, when in doubt, you can always come back and look here. (It you want a bookmark, here's a direct link to the regex reference tables). I encourage you to print the tables so you have a cheat sheet on your desk for quick reference.
The tables are not exhaustive, for two reasons. First, every regex flavor is different, and I didn't want to crowd the page with overly exotic syntax. For a full reference to the particular regex flavors you'll be using, it's always best to go straight to the source. In fact, for some regex engines (such as Perl, PCRE, Java and .NET) you may want to check once a year, as their creators often introduce new features.
The other reason the tables are not exhaustive is that I wanted them to serve as a quick introduction to regex. If you are a complete beginner, you should get a firm grasp of basic regex syntax just by reading the examples in the tables. I tried to introduce features in a logical order and to keep out oddities that I've never seen in actual use, such as the 'bell character'. With these tables as a jumping board, you will be able to advance to mastery by exploring the other pages on the site.

How to use the tables

The tables are meant to serve as an accelerated regex course, and they are meant to be read slowly, one line at a time. On each line, in the leftmost column, you will find a new element of regex syntax. The next column, 'Legend', explains what the element means (or encodes) in the regex syntax. The next two columns work hand in hand: the 'Example' column gives a valid regular expression that uses the element, and the 'Sample Match' column presents a text string that could be matched by the regular expression.
You can read the tables online, of course, but if you suffer from even the mildest case of online-ADD (attention deficit disorder), like most of us… Well then, I highly recommend you print them out. You'll be able to study them slowly, and to use them as a cheat sheet later, when you are reading the rest of the site or experimenting with your own regular expressions.
Enjoy!
If you overdose, make sure not to miss the next page, which comes back down to Earth and talks about some really cool stuff: The 1001 ways to use Regex.

Regex Accelerated Course and Cheat Sheet

For easy navigation, here are some jumping points to various sections of the page:
✽ Characters
✽ Quantifiers
✽ More Characters
✽ Logic
✽ More White-Space
✽ More Quantifiers

Regex Builder

✽ Character Classes
✽ Anchors and Boundaries
✽ POSIX Classes
✽ Inline Modifiers
✽ Lookarounds
✽ Character Class Operations
✽ Other Syntax
(direct link)

Characters

CharacterLegendExampleSample Match
dMost engines: one digit
from 0 to 9
file_ddfile_25
d.NET, Python 3: one Unicode digit in any scriptfile_ddfile_9੩
wMost engines: 'word character': ASCII letter, digit or underscorew-wwwA-b_1
w.Python 3: 'word character': Unicode letter, ideogram, digit, or underscorew-www字-ま_۳
w.NET: 'word character': Unicode letter, ideogram, digit, or connectorw-www字-ま‿۳
sMost engines: 'whitespace character': space, tab, newline, carriage return, vertical tabasbsca b
c
s.NET, Python 3, JavaScript: 'whitespace character': any Unicode separatorasbsca b
c
DOne character that is not a digit as defined by your engine's dDDDABC
WOne character that is not a word character as defined by your engine's wWWWWW*-+=)
SOne character that is not a whitespace character as defined by your engine's sSSSSYoyo

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Quantifiers

QuantifierLegendExampleSample Match
+One or moreVersion w-w+Version A-b1_1
{3}Exactly three timesD{3}ABC
{2,4}Two to four timesd{2,4}156
{3,}Three or more timesw{3,}regex_tutorial
*Zero or more timesA*B*C*AAACC
?Once or noneplurals?plural

(direct link)

More Characters

CharacterLegendExampleSample Match
.Any character except line breaka.cabc
.Any character except line break.*whatever, man.
.A period (special character: needs to be escaped by a )a.ca.c
Escapes a special character.*+? $^/.*+? $^/
Escapes a special character[{()}][{()}]

(direct link)

Logic

LogicLegendExampleSample Match
| Alternation / OR operand22|3333
( … )Capturing groupA(nt|pple)Apple (captures 'pple')
1Contents of Group 1r(w)g1xregex
2Contents of Group 2(dd)+(dd)=2+112+65=65+12
(?: … )Non-capturing groupA(?:nt|pple)Apple

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More White-Space

CharacterLegendExampleSample Match
tTabTtw{2}T ab
rCarriage return charactersee below
nLine feed charactersee below
rnLine separator on WindowsABrnCDAB
CD
NPerl, PCRE (C, PHP, R…): one character that is not a line breakN+ABC
hPerl, PCRE (C, PHP, R…), Java: one horizontal whitespace character: tab or Unicode space separator
HOne character that is not a horizontal whitespace
v.NET, JavaScript, Python, Ruby: vertical tab
vPerl, PCRE (C, PHP, R…), Java: one vertical whitespace character: line feed, carriage return, vertical tab, form feed, paragraph or line separator
VPerl, PCRE (C, PHP, R…), Java: any character that is not a vertical whitespace
RPerl, PCRE (C, PHP, R…), Java: one line break (carriage return + line feed pair, and all the characters matched by v)

(direct link)

More Quantifiers

QuantifierLegendExampleSample Match
+The + (one or more) is 'greedy'd+12345
?Makes quantifiers 'lazy'd+?1 in 12345
*The * (zero or more) is 'greedy'A*AAA
?Makes quantifiers 'lazy'A*?empty in AAA
{2,4}Two to four times, 'greedy'w{2,4}abcd
?Makes quantifiers 'lazy'w{2,4}?ab in abcd

(direct link)

Character Classes

CharacterLegendExampleSample Match
[ … ]One of the characters in the brackets[AEIOU]One uppercase vowel
[ … ]One of the characters in the bracketsT[ao]pTap or Top
-Range indicator[a-z]One lowercase letter
[x-y]One of the characters in the range from x to y[A-Z]+GREAT
[ … ]One of the characters in the brackets[AB1-5w-z]One of either: A,B,1,2,3,4,5,w,x,y,z
[x-y]One of the characters in the range from x to y[ -~]+Characters in the printable section of the ASCII table.
[^x]One character that is not x[^a-z]{3}A1!
[^x-y]One of the characters not in the range from x to y[^ -~]+Characters that are not in the printable section of the ASCII table.
[dD]One character that is a digit or a non-digit[dD]+Any characters, inc-
luding new lines, which the regular dot doesn't match
[x41]Matches the character at hexadecimal position 41 in the ASCII table, i.e. A[x41-x45]{3}ABE

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Anchors and Boundaries

AnchorLegendExampleSample Match
^Start of string or start of line depending on multiline mode. (But when [^inside brackets], it means 'not')^abc .*abc (line start)
$End of string or end of line depending on multiline mode. Many engine-dependent subtleties..*? the end$this is the end
ABeginning of string
(all major engines except JS)
Aabc[dD]*abc (string...
...start)
zVery end of the string
Not available in Python and JS
the endzthis is...n...the end
ZEnd of string or (except Python) before final line break
Not available in JS
the endZthis is...n...the endn
GBeginning of String or End of Previous Match
.NET, Java, PCRE (C, PHP, R…), Perl, Ruby
bWord boundary
Most engines: position where one side only is an ASCII letter, digit or underscore
Bob.*bcatbBob ate the cat
bWord boundary
.NET, Java, Python 3, Ruby: position where one side only is a Unicode letter, digit or underscore
Bob.*bкошкаbBob ate the кошка
BNot a word boundaryc.*BcatB.*copycats

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POSIX Classes

CharacterLegendExampleSample Match
[:alpha:]PCRE (C, PHP, R…): ASCII letters A-Z and a-z[8[:alpha:]]+WellDone88
[:alpha:]Ruby 2: Unicode letter or ideogram[[:alpha:]d]+кошка99
[:alnum:]PCRE (C, PHP, R…): ASCII digits and letters A-Z and a-z[[:alnum:]]{10}ABCDE12345
[:alnum:]Ruby 2: Unicode digit, letter or ideogram[[:alnum:]]{10}кошка90210
[:punct:]PCRE (C, PHP, R…): ASCII punctuation mark[[:punct:]]+?!.,:;
[:punct:]Ruby: Unicode punctuation mark[[:punct:]]+‽,:〽⁆

(direct link)

Inline Modifiers

None of these are supported in JavaScript. In Ruby, beware of (?s) and (?m).
ModifierLegendExampleSample Match
(?i)Case-insensitive mode
(except JavaScript)
(?i)MondaymonDAY
(?s)DOTALL mode (except JS and Ruby). The dot (.) matches new line characters (rn). Also known as 'single-line mode' because the dot treats the entire input as a single line(?s)From A.*to ZFrom A
to Z
(?m)Multiline mode
(except Ruby and JS) ^ and $ match at the beginning and end of every line
(?m)1rn^2$rn^3$1
2
3
(?m)In Ruby: the same as (?s) in other engines, i.e. DOTALL mode, i.e. dot matches line breaks(?m)From A.*to ZFrom A
to Z
(?x)Free-Spacing Mode mode
(except JavaScript). Also known as comment mode or whitespace mode
(?x) # this is a
# comment
abc # write on multiple
# lines
[ ]d # spaces must be
# in brackets
abc d
(?n).NET, PCRE 10.30+: named capture onlyTurns all (parentheses) into non-capture groups. To capture, use named groups.
(?d)Java: Unix linebreaks onlyThe dot and the ^ and $ anchors are only affected by n
(?^)PCRE 10.32+: unset modifiersUnsets ismnx modifiers

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Lookarounds

LookaroundLegendExampleSample Match
(?=…)Positive lookahead(?=d{10})d{5}01234 in 0123456789
(?<=…)Positive lookbehind(?<=d)catcat in 1cat
(?!…)Negative lookahead(?!theatre)thew+theme
(?<!…)Negative lookbehindw{3}(?<!mon)sterMunster

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Character Class Operations

Class OperationLegendExampleSample Match
[…-[…]].NET: character class subtraction. One character that is in those on the left, but not in the subtracted class.[a-z-[aeiou]]Any lowercase consonant
[…-[…]].NET: character class subtraction.[p{IsArabic}-[D]]An Arabic character that is not a non-digit, i.e., an Arabic digit
[…&&[…]]Java, Ruby 2+: character class intersection. One character that is both in those on the left and in the && class.[S&&[D]]An non-whitespace character that is a non-digit.
[…&&[…]]Java, Ruby 2+: character class intersection.[S&&[D]&&[^a-zA-Z]]An non-whitespace character that a non-digit and not a letter.
[…&&[^…]]Java, Ruby 2+: character class subtraction is obtained by intersecting a class with a negated class[a-z&&[^aeiou]]An English lowercase letter that is not a vowel.
[…&&[^…]]Java, Ruby 2+: character class subtraction[p{InArabic}&&[^p{L}p{N}]]An Arabic character that is not a letter or a number

(direct link)

Other Syntax

SyntaxLegendExampleSample Match
KKeep Out
Perl, PCRE (C, PHP, R…), Python's alternate regex engine, Ruby 2+: drop everything that was matched so far from the overall match to be returned
prefixKd+12
Q…EPerl, PCRE (C, PHP, R…), Java: treat anything between the delimiters as a literal string. Useful to escape metacharacters.Q(C++ ?)E(C++ ?)

Don't Miss The Regex Style Guide
and The Best Regex Trick Ever!!!

The 1001 ways to use Regex

1-10 of 17 Threads
Subject: Very thoughtful and useful cheat sheet

Unlike lots of other cheat sheets or regex web sites, I was able (without much persistent regex knowledge) to apply the rules and to solve my problem. THANK YOU :)
Subject: Thanks a lot

Thanks a lot for the quick guide. It's really helpful.
Subject: Very useful site

Thank you soooooo much for this site. I'm using python regex for natural language processing in sentiment analysis and this helped me a lot.
Subject: Thank you! Excellent resource for any student

Thank you so much for this incredible cheatsheet! It is facilitating a lot my regex learning! God bless you and your passion!
Subject: Thank you for doing such a geat work.

I am now learning regex and for finding such a well organized site is a blessing! You are a good soul! Thank you for everything and stay inspired!
Subject: Simple = perfect

Regex Python Cheat Sheet Printable

Subject: Congratulations

Well done, very useful page. Thank you for your effort. T
Subject: Thank you very much

Hi Rex,
Thankyou very much for compiling these. I am new to text analytics and is struggling a lot with regex. This is helping me a lot pick up. Great work
Subject: Nice summary

Nice summary of regex. I was trying to remember how to group and I found the example above. Thanks.
Subject: Best Regex site ever

This is the best regex site ever on the internet. Regular Expressions are like any other language, they require time and effort to learn. RexEgg makes it an easy journey. Great work Author. Kudos to you.

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