c# regular expression reference

Cheat sheet for C# regular expressions metacharacters, operators, quantifiers etc

(?i) within the pattern begins case-insensitive matching, (?-i) ends it.

 

Character

Description

\	Marks the next character as either a special character or escapes a literal. For example, "n" matches the character "n". "\n" matches a newline character. The sequence "\\" matches "\" and "\(" matches "(". Note: double quotes may be escaped by doubling them: "<a href=""...>"
^	Depending on whether the MultiLine option is set, matches the position before the first character in a line, or the first character in the string.
$	Depending on whether the MultiLine option is set, matches the position after the last character in a line, or the last character in the string.
*	Matches the preceding character zero or more times. For example, "zo*" matches either "z" or "zoo".
+	Matches the preceding character one or more times. For example, "zo+" matches "zoo" but not "z".
?	Matches the preceding character zero or one time. For example, "a?ve?" matches the "ve" in "never".
.	Matches any single character except a newline character.
(pattern)	Matches pattern and remembers the match. The matched substring can be retrieved from the resulting Matches collection, using Item [0]...[n] . To match parentheses characters ( ), use "\(" or "\)".
(?<name>pattern)	Matches pattern and gives the match a name.
(?:pattern)	A non-capturing group
(?=...)	A positive lookahead
(?!...)	A negative lookahead
(?<=...)	A positive lookbehind .
(?<!...)	A negative lookbehind .
x|y	Matches either x or y . For example, "z|wood" matches "z" or "wood". "(z|w)oo" matches "zoo" or "wood".
{n }	n is a non-negative integer. Matches exactly n times. For example, "o{2}" does not match the "o" in "Bob," but matches the first two o's in "foooood".
{n ,}	n is a non-negative integer. Matches at least n times. For example, "o{2,}" does not match the "o" in "Bob" and matches all the o's in "foooood." "o{1,}" is equivalent to "o+". "o{0,}" is equivalent to "o*".
{ n , m }	m and n are non-negative integers. Matches at least n and at most m times. For example, "o{1,3}" matches the first three o's in "fooooood." "o{0,1}" is equivalent to "o?".
[ xyz ]	A character set. Matches any one of the enclosed characters. For example, "[abc]" matches the "a" in "plain".
[^ xyz ]	A negative character set. Matches any character not enclosed. For example, "[^abc]" matches the "p" in "plain".
[ a-z ]	A range of characters. Matches any character in the specified range. For example, "[a-z]" matches any lowercase alphabetic character in the range "a" through "z".
[^ m-z ]	A negative range characters. Matches any character not in the specified range. For example, "[m-z]" matches any character not in the range "m" through "z".
\b	Matches a word boundary, that is, the position between a word and a space. For example, "er\b" matches the "er" in "never" but not the "er" in "verb".
\B	Matches a non-word boundary. "ea*r\B" matches the "ear" in "never early".
\d	Matches a digit character. Equivalent to [0-9].
\D	Matches a non-digit character. Equivalent to [^0-9].
\f	Matches a form-feed character.
\k	A back-reference to a named group.
\n	Matches a newline character.
\r	Matches a carriage return character.
\s	Matches any white space including space, tab, form-feed, etc. Equivalent to "[ \f\n\r\t\v]".
\S	Matches any nonwhite space character. Equivalent to "[^ \f\n\r\t\v]".
\t	Matches a tab character.
\v	Matches a vertical tab character.
\w	Matches any word character including underscore. Equivalent to "[A-Za-z0-9_]".
\W	Matches any non-word character. Equivalent to "[^A-Za-z0-9_]".
\num	Matches num , where num is a positive integer. A reference back to remembered matches. For example, "(.)\1" matches two consecutive identical characters.
\n	Matches n , where n is an octal escape value. Octal escape values must be 1, 2, or 3 digits long. For example, "\11" and "\011" both match a tab character. "\0011" is the equivalent of "\001" & "1". Octal escape values must not exceed 256. If they do, only the first two digits comprise the expression. Allows ASCII codes to be used in regular expressions.
\xn	Matches n , where n is a hexadecimal escape value. Hexadecimal escape values must be exactly two digits long. For example, "\x41" matches "A". "\x041" is equivalent to "\x04" & "1". Allows ASCII codes to be used in regular expressions.
\un	Matches a Unicode character expressed in hexadecimal notation with exactly four numeric digits. "\u0200" matches a space character.
\A	Matches the position before the first character in a string. Not affected by the MultiLine setting
\Z	Matches the position after the last character of a string. Not affected by the MultiLine setting.
\G	Specifies that the matches must be consecutive, without any intervening non-matching characters.