| character | describe |
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| \ | Marks the next character as a special character, or a literal character, or a backreference, or an octal escape character. For example, "n" matches the character "n". "\n" matches a newline character. The sequence "\\" matches "\" and "\(" matches "(". |
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| ^ | Matches the beginning of the input string. If the Multiline property of the RegExp object is set, ^ also matches the position after "\n" or "\r". |
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| $ | Matches the end of the input string. If the Multiline property of the RegExp object is set, $ also matches the position before "\n" or "\r". |
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| * | Matches the preceding subexpression zero or more times. For example, zo* matches "z" and "zoo". *Equivalent to {0,}. |
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| + | Matches the preceding subexpression one or more times. For example, "zo+" matches "zo" and "zoo", but not "z". + is equivalent to {1,}. |
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| ? | Matches the preceding subexpression zero or one time. For example, "do(es)?" would match the "do" in "do" or "does". ? Equivalent to {0,1}. |
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| {n} | n is a nonnegative integer. Match determined n times. For example, "o{2}" cannot match the "o" in "Bob", but it can match the two o's in "food". |
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| {n,} | n is a nonnegative integer. Match at least n times. For example, "o{2,}" cannot match the "o" in "Bob", but it can match all o's in "foooood". "o{1,}" is equivalent to "o+". "o{0,}" is equivalent to "o*". |
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| {n,m} | Both m and n are non-negative integers, where n<=m. Match at least n times and at most m times. For example, "o{1,3}" will match the first three o's in "fooooood". "o{0,1}" is equivalent to "o?". Please note that there cannot be a space between the comma and the two numbers. |
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| ? | When this character immediately follows any of the other qualifiers (*,+,?, {n}, {n,}, {n,m}), the matching pattern is non-greedy. Non-greedy mode matches as little of the searched string as possible, while the default greedy mode matches as much of the searched string as possible. For example, for the string "oooo", "o+?" will match a single "o", while "o+" will match all "o"s. |
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| . | Matches any single character except "\n". To match any character including "\n", use a pattern like "[.\n]". |
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| (pattern) | Match pattern and get this match. The obtained matches can be obtained from the generated Matches collection, using the SubMatches collection in VBScript and the $0...$9 attributes in JScript. To match parentheses characters, use "\(" or "\)". |
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| (?:pattern) | Matches the pattern but does not obtain the matching result, which means that this is a non-acquisition match and is not stored for later use. This is useful when combining parts of a pattern using the or character "(|)". For example, "industr(?:y|ies)" is a simpler expression than "industry|industries". |
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| (?=pattern) | Forward lookup, matches the search string at the beginning of any string matching pattern. This is a non-fetch match, that is, the match does not need to be fetched for later use. For example, "Windows(?=95|98|NT|2000)" can match "Windows" in "Windows2000", but cannot match "Windows" in "Windows3.1". Prefetching does not consume characters, that is, after a match occurs, the search for the next match begins immediately after the last match, rather than starting after the character containing the prefetch. |
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| (?!pattern) | Negative lookahead, matches the search string at the beginning of any string that does not match the pattern. This is a non-fetch match, that is, the match does not need to be fetched for later use. For example, "Windows(?!95|98|NT|2000)" can match "Windows" in "Windows3.1", but cannot match "Windows" in "Windows2000". Prefetch does not consume characters, that is, after a match occurs, the search for the next match starts immediately after the last match, rather than starting after the character containing the prefetch |
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| x|y | Match x or y. For example, "z|food" matches "z" or "food". "(z|f)ood" matches "zood" or "food". |
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| [xyz] | Character collection. Matches any one of the characters contained. For example, "[abc]" would match the "a" in "plain". |
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| [^xyz] | A collection of negative characters. Matches any character not included. For example, "[^abc]" would match the "p" in "plain". |
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| [a-z] | Character range. Matches any character within the specified range. For example, "[az]" matches any lowercase alphabetic character in the range "a" through "z". |
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| [^a-z] | Negative character range. Matches any character not within the specified range. For example, "[^az]" matches any character that is not in the range "a" through "z". |
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| \b | Matches a word boundary, which is the position between a word and a space. For example, "er\b" matches the "er" in "never" but not the "er" in "verb". |
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| \B | Match non-word boundaries. "er\B" can match the "er" in "verb", but not the "er" in "never". |
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| \cx | Matches the control character specified by x. For example, \cM matches a Control-M or carriage return character. The value of x must be one of AZ or az. Otherwise, treat c as a literal "c" character. |
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| \d | Matches a numeric character. Equivalent to [0-9]. |
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| \D | Matches a non-numeric character. Equivalent to [^0-9]. |
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| \f | Matches a form feed character. Equivalent to \x0c and \cL. |
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| \n | Matches a newline character. Equivalent to \x0a and \cJ. |
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| \r | Matches a carriage return character. Equivalent to \x0d and \cM. |
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| \s | Matches any whitespace character, including spaces, tabs, form feeds, and so on. Equivalent to [\f\n\r\t\v]. |
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| \S | Matches any non-whitespace character. Equivalent to [^\f\n\r\t\v]. |
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| \t | Matches a tab character. Equivalent to \x09 and \cI. |
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| \v | Matches a vertical tab character. Equivalent to \x0b and \cK. |
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| \w | Matches any word character including an underscore. Equivalent to "[A-Za-z0-9_]". |
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| \W | Matches any non-word character. Equivalent to "[^A-Za-z0-9_]". |
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| \xn | Matches n, where n is the hexadecimal escape value. The hexadecimal escape value must be exactly two digits long. For example, "\x41" matches "A". "\x041" is equivalent to "\x04&1". ASCII encoding can be used in regular expressions. . |
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| \num | Matches num, where num is a positive integer. A reference to the match obtained. For example, "(.)\1" matches two consecutive identical characters. |
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| \n | Identifies an octal escape value or a backreference. If \n is preceded by at least n fetched subexpressions, n is a backward reference. Otherwise, if n is an octal number (0-7), then n is an octal escape value. |
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| \nm | Identifies an octal escape value or a backreference. If there are at least nm get subexpressions before \nm, nm is a backward reference. If \nm is preceded by at least n obtains, then n is a backward reference followed by the literal m. If none of the previous conditions are met, and if n and m are both octal numbers (0-7), then \nm will match the octal escape value nm. |
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| \nml | If n is an octal number (0-3), and m and l are both octal digits (0-7), then the octal escape value nml is matched. |
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| \un | Matches n, where n is a Unicode character represented by four hexadecimal digits. For example, \u00A9 matches the copyright symbol (?). |
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