Search pattern

Special characters

. ? + * ^ $ \ ( ) [ ] { } |

Need to be escaped with a backslash (\) to match the actual character e.g. The search pattern '\+' matches the '+' character in '123454321+FIVEfiveF'.

• Any other character matches itself

.	Matches one of any character e.g. The search pattern '.3' matches the '23' and '43' strings in '123454321+FIVEfiveF'.
(...|...|...)	Matches one of the alternatives e.g. The search pattern '(5|FIVE)' matches the '5' and 'FIVE' strings in '123454321+FIVEfiveF'.

Character classes

[abc]	Matches any character within the brackets (same as (a|b|c))
[^abc]	Matches any character not between the brackets. e.g. The search pattern '[^12FI]' matches all string in '123454321+FIVEfiveF' except the '12', '21', 'FI', and 'F' portions.

• Only ^ - \ ] need to be escaped inside a character class
• May include ranges like [a-z] or [a-z2-7A-F]

\d	Matches digits (same as [0-9])
\D	Matches non-digits (same as [^0-9])
\w	Matches alphanumeric (same as [a-zA-Z0-9_])
\W	Matches non-alphanumeric (same as [^a-zA-Z0-9_])
\s	Matches whitespace
\S	Matches non-whitespace)

Anchors

• Anchors match the position between characters, not the characters themselves

^	Matches the position at the beginning of the line
$	Matches the position at the end of the line
\b	Matches the position between a \w\W or \W\w (word boundary)*
\B	Matches the position between a \w\w or \W\W (non-word boundary)

* \b also matches at the beginning and end of a line

Quantifiers

• Quantifiers are normally greedy (match as much as possible)
• When followed by ? they become non-greedy (match as little as possible)

?	Match the previous element zero or one times (one if possible)
??	Match the previous element zero or one times (zero if possible)
+	Match the previous element one or more times (as many as possible)
+?	Match the previous element one or more times (as few as possible)
*	Match the previous element zero or more times (as many as possible) e.g. The search pattern '1*' matches the '1' and the '11' strings in '1234543211+FIVEfiveF'. The search pattern '.*' matches the entire string in '1234543211+FIVEfiveF'.
*?	Match the previous element zero or more times (as few as possible)
{n}	Match the previous element exactly n times e.g. The search pattern '[0-9]{6}' matches the '123454' string in '123454321+FIVEfiveF'.
{n,}	Match the previous element at least n times (as many as possible)
{n,}?	Match the previous element at least n times (as few as possible)
{n,m}	Match the previous element between n - m times (as many as possible)
{n,m}?	Match the previous element between n - m times (as few as possible)

Unnamed Capture Groups

(...)

Capture text matched between parentheses to an unnamed capture group. Unnamed capture groups (which are actually numbered captures) can be referenced in replace patterns. e.g. The search pattern '([3-5])+FIVE(five)' matches '345+FIVEfive' in the string '123454321+FIVEfiveF'. It also creates 2 groups. Group #1 matches the '345' and group #2 matches the 'five'.

• The order of unnamed captures are defined by the order of the opening parentheses:
  For the search pattern '(12)345\+((FIVE)(fiv)e)'
  Group #1 = '12'
  Group #2 = 'FIVEfive'
  Group #3 = 'FIVE'
  Group #4 = 'fiv'
• n > 9 is only available if you have more than 9 capture groups

Named Capture Groups

(?<foobar>...)

Capture text matched between parentheses to a named capture group called “foobar”. Named capture groups can be referenced in replace patterns.

Lookaround

(?=...)	Positive lookahead (match the position before the specified regex)
(?!...)	Negative lookahead (don’t match, as above)
(?<=...)	Positive lookbehind (match the position after the specified regex)
(?<!...)	Negative lookbehind (don't match, as above)

Flags

(?x)	Activate flag x

• Standard regex flags are i (ignore case), x (verose regex).
• PFrank extensions are B (build path), E (ignore extension), Z (post processing), 1 (match count=1), 2 (match count=2), 3 (match count=3), 4 (match count=4),
• You may group more than one flag together

  e.g.

  The search pattern '(?ix1)Fi' matches 'FI' string in '123454321+FIVEfiveF' The search pattern '(?ix2)Fi' matches 'FI' and 'fi' string in '123454321+FIVEfiveF'.

Replace pattern

Any text other than the variables below will be replaced as-is.

Capture Group References

\n	Match the text in unnamed capture group #n, captured earlier in the search pattern
\<foobar>	Match the text in named capture group “foobar”, captured earlier in the search pattern

• For unnamed captures, use g<n> if the following character is an actual digit
• n > 9 is only available if you have more than 9 capture groups