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The full syntax and semantics of the regular expressions that are supported by PCRE2 are described in the pcre2pattern documentation. This document contains a quick-reference summary of the syntax.
\x where x is non-alphanumeric is a literal x \Q...\E treat enclosed characters as literal
This table applies to ASCII and Unicode environments. An unrecognized escape sequence causes an error.
\a alarm, that is, the BEL character (hex 07) \cx "control-x", where x is any ASCII printing character \e escape (hex 1B) \f form feed (hex 0C) \n newline (hex 0A) \r carriage return (hex 0D) \t tab (hex 09) \0dd character with octal code 0dd \ddd character with octal code ddd, or backreference \o{ddd..} character with octal code ddd.. \N{U+hh..} character with Unicode code point hh.. (Unicode mode only) \xhh character with hex code hh \x{hh..} character with hex code hh..
\U the character "U" \uhhhh character with hex code hhhh \u{hh..} character with hex code hh.. but only for EXTRA_ALT_BSUX
Note that \0dd is always an octal code. The treatment of backslash followed by a non-zero digit is complicated; for details see the section "Non-printing characters" in the pcre2pattern documentation, where details of escape processing in EBCDIC environments are also given. \N{U+hh..} is synonymous with \x{hh..} in PCRE2 but is not supported in EBCDIC environments. Note that \N not followed by an opening curly bracket has a different meaning (see below).
. any character except newline; in dotall mode, any character whatsoever \C one code unit, even in UTF mode (best avoided) \d a decimal digit \D a character that is not a decimal digit \h a horizontal white space character \H a character that is not a horizontal white space character \N a character that is not a newline \p{xx} a character with the xx property \P{xx} a character without the xx property \R a newline sequence \s a white space character \S a character that is not a white space character \v a vertical white space character \V a character that is not a vertical white space character \w a "word" character \W a "non-word" character \X a Unicode extended grapheme cluster
By default, \d, \s, and \w match only ASCII characters, even in UTF-8 mode or in the 16-bit and 32-bit libraries. However, if locale-specific matching is happening, \s and \w may also match characters with code points in the range 128-255. If the PCRE2_UCP option is set, the behaviour of these escape sequences is changed to use Unicode properties and they match many more characters.
Property descriptions in \p and \P are matched caselessly; hyphens, underscores, and white space are ignored, in accordance with Unicode's "loose matching" rules.
C Other Cc Control Cf Format Cn Unassigned Co Private use Cs Surrogate L Letter Ll Lower case letter Lm Modifier letter Lo Other letter Lt Title case letter Lu Upper case letter Lc Ll, Lu, or Lt L& Ll, Lu, or Lt 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 Mathematical symbol So Other symbol Z Separator Zl Line separator Zp Paragraph separator Zs Space separator
Xan Alphanumeric: union of properties L and N Xps POSIX space: property Z or tab, NL, VT, FF, CR Xsp Perl space: property Z or tab, NL, VT, FF, CR Xuc Univerally-named character: one that can be represented by a Universal Character Name Xwd Perl word: property Xan or underscore
Unicode defines a number of binary properties, that is, properties whose only values are true or false. You can obtain a list of those that are recognized by \p and \P, along with their abbreviations, by running this command:
pcre2test -LP
Many script names and their 4-letter abbreviations are recognized in \p{sc:...} or \p{scx:...} items, or on their own with \p (and also \P of course). You can obtain a list of these scripts by running this command:
pcre2test -LS
\p{Bidi_Class:<class>} matches a character with the given class \p{BC:<class>} matches a character with the given class
AL Arabic letter AN Arabic number B paragraph separator BN boundary neutral CS common separator EN European number ES European separator ET European terminator FSI first strong isolate L left-to-right LRE left-to-right embedding LRI left-to-right isolate LRO left-to-right override NSM non-spacing mark ON other neutral PDF pop directional format PDI pop directional isolate R right-to-left RLE right-to-left embedding RLI right-to-left isolate RLO right-to-left override S segment separator WS which space
[...] positive character class [^...] negative character class [x-y] range (can be used for hex characters) [[:xxx:]] positive POSIX named set [[:^xxx:]] negative POSIX named set alnum alphanumeric alpha alphabetic ascii 0-127 blank space or tab cntrl control character digit decimal digit graph printing, excluding space lower lower case letter print printing, including space punct printing, excluding alphanumeric space white space upper upper case letter word same as \w xdigit hexadecimal digit
? 0 or 1, greedy ?+ 0 or 1, possessive ?? 0 or 1, lazy * 0 or more, greedy *+ 0 or more, possessive *? 0 or more, lazy + 1 or more, greedy ++ 1 or more, possessive +? 1 or more, lazy {n} exactly n {n,m} at least n, no more than m, greedy {n,m}+ at least n, no more than m, possessive {n,m}? at least n, no more than m, lazy {n,} n or more, greedy {n,}+ n or more, possessive {n,}? n or more, lazy
\b word boundary \B not a word boundary ^ start of subject also after an internal newline in multiline mode (after any newline if PCRE2_ALT_CIRCUMFLEX is set) \A start of subject $ end of subject also before newline at end of subject also before internal newline in multiline mode \Z end of subject also before newline at end of subject \z end of subject \G first matching position in subject
\K set reported start of match
expr|expr|expr...
(...) capture group (?<name>...) named capture group (Perl) (?'name'...) named capture group (Perl) (?P<name>...) named capture group (Python) (?:...) non-capture group (?|...) non-capture group; reset group numbers for capture groups in each alternative
(?>...) atomic non-capture group (*atomic:...) atomic non-capture group
(?#....) comment (not nestable)
Changes of these options within a group are automatically cancelled at the end of the group.
(?i) caseless (?J) allow duplicate named groups (?m) multiline (?n) no auto capture (?s) single line (dotall) (?U) default ungreedy (lazy) (?x) extended: ignore white space except in classes (?xx) as (?x) but also ignore space and tab in classes (?-...) unset option(s) (?^) unset imnsx options
The following are recognized only at the very start of a pattern or after one of the newline or \R options with similar syntax. More than one of them may appear. For the first three, d is a decimal number.
(*LIMIT_DEPTH=d) set the backtracking limit to d (*LIMIT_HEAP=d) set the heap size limit to d * 1024 bytes (*LIMIT_MATCH=d) set the match limit to d (*NOTEMPTY) set PCRE2_NOTEMPTY when matching (*NOTEMPTY_ATSTART) set PCRE2_NOTEMPTY_ATSTART when matching (*NO_AUTO_POSSESS) no auto-possessification (PCRE2_NO_AUTO_POSSESS) (*NO_DOTSTAR_ANCHOR) no .* anchoring (PCRE2_NO_DOTSTAR_ANCHOR) (*NO_JIT) disable JIT optimization (*NO_START_OPT) no start-match optimization (PCRE2_NO_START_OPTIMIZE) (*UTF) set appropriate UTF mode for the library in use (*UCP) set PCRE2_UCP (use Unicode properties for \d etc)
These are recognized only at the very start of the pattern or after option settings with a similar syntax.
(*CR) carriage return only (*LF) linefeed only (*CRLF) carriage return followed by linefeed (*ANYCRLF) all three of the above (*ANY) any Unicode newline sequence (*NUL) the NUL character (binary zero)
These are recognized only at the very start of the pattern or after option setting with a similar syntax.
(*BSR_ANYCRLF) CR, LF, or CRLF (*BSR_UNICODE) any Unicode newline sequence
(?=...) ) (*pla:...) ) positive lookahead (*positive_lookahead:...) ) (?!...) ) (*nla:...) ) negative lookahead (*negative_lookahead:...) ) (?<=...) ) (*plb:...) ) positive lookbehind (*positive_lookbehind:...) ) (?<!...) ) (*nlb:...) ) negative lookbehind (*negative_lookbehind:...) )
These assertions are specific to PCRE2 and are not Perl-compatible.
(?*...) ) (*napla:...) ) synonyms (*non_atomic_positive_lookahead:...) ) (?<*...) ) (*naplb:...) ) synonyms (*non_atomic_positive_lookbehind:...) )
(*script_run:...) ) script run, can be backtracked into (*sr:...) ) (*atomic_script_run:...) ) atomic script run (*asr:...) )
\n reference by number (can be ambiguous) \gn reference by number \g{n} reference by number \g+n relative reference by number (PCRE2 extension) \g-n relative reference by number \g{+n} relative reference by number (PCRE2 extension) \g{-n} relative reference by number \k<name> reference by name (Perl) \k'name' reference by name (Perl) \g{name} reference by name (Perl) \k{name} reference by name (.NET) (?P=name) reference by name (Python)
(?R) recurse whole pattern (?n) call subroutine by absolute number (?+n) call subroutine by relative number (?-n) call subroutine by relative number (?&name) call subroutine by name (Perl) (?P>name) call subroutine by name (Python) \g<name> call subroutine by name (Oniguruma) \g'name' call subroutine by name (Oniguruma) \g<n> call subroutine by absolute number (Oniguruma) \g'n' call subroutine by absolute number (Oniguruma) \g<+n> call subroutine by relative number (PCRE2 extension) \g'+n' call subroutine by relative number (PCRE2 extension) \g<-n> call subroutine by relative number (PCRE2 extension) \g'-n' call subroutine by relative number (PCRE2 extension)
(?(condition)yes-pattern) (?(condition)yes-pattern|no-pattern) (?(n) absolute reference condition (?(+n) relative reference condition (?(-n) relative reference condition (?(<name>) named reference condition (Perl) (?('name') named reference condition (Perl) (?(name) named reference condition (PCRE2, deprecated) (?(R) overall recursion condition (?(Rn) specific numbered group recursion condition (?(R&name) specific named group recursion condition (?(DEFINE) define groups for reference (?(VERSION[>]=n.m) test PCRE2 version (?(assert) assertion condition
All backtracking control verbs may be in the form (*VERB:NAME). For (*MARK) the name is mandatory, for the others it is optional. (*SKIP) changes its behaviour if :NAME is present. The others just set a name for passing back to the caller, but this is not a name that (*SKIP) can see. The following act immediately they are reached:
(*ACCEPT) force successful match (*FAIL) force backtrack; synonym (*F) (*MARK:NAME) set name to be passed back; synonym (*:NAME)
(*COMMIT) overall failure, no advance of starting point (*PRUNE) advance to next starting character (*SKIP) advance to current matching position (*SKIP:NAME) advance to position corresponding to an earlier (*MARK:NAME); if not found, the (*SKIP) is ignored (*THEN) local failure, backtrack to next alternation
(?C) callout (assumed number 0) (?Cn) callout with numerical data n (?C"text") callout with string data
pcre2pattern(3), pcre2api(3), pcre2callout(3), pcre2matching(3), pcre2(3).
Philip Hazel Retired from University Computing Service Cambridge, England.
Last updated: 12 January 2022 Copyright © 1997-2022 University of Cambridge.