This is super simplified, but it’s enough to get started with. I remember being confused by the gigantic tables with all the special clauses, so when you’re beginning keep it simple.
Remember if you want to match a literal character you can just type it out, unless there’s a special character. Special characters have meanings in regex patterns, so you need to type a \ in front of them if you want to specifically match them in the pattern.
Common special characters are: + . \ – [] {} $ ? |
Example: If I wanted to match taste, taster, tasters, I would type a pattern like taste\w{0,2}
If I wanted to match taste!, I would write a pattern like taste\!
| Code | What does it Match? |
| \d | Numbers |
| \w | Word characters like letters of any case |
| \s | Spaces |
| \b | Boundary of a word character |
| \D | Not a number |
| \W | Not a word character |
| \S | Not a space |
| \n | Line break |
| \r | Line break |
| \t | Tab |
| ? | Previous code is optional |
| * | Repeat previous code 0 to infinity |
| + | Repeat previous code once or more |
| {1} | Repeat previous code once (can use any number) |
| {1,2} | Repeat previous code 1 to 2 times (can use any numbers) |