PCRE2SYNTAX(3) Library Functions Manual PCRE2SYNTAX(3)
NAME
PCRE2 - Perl-compatible regular expressions (revised API)
PCRE2 REGULAR EXPRESSION SYNTAX SUMMARY
The full syntax and semantics of the regular expressions that are sup-
ported by PCRE2 are described in the pcre2pattern documentation. This
document contains a quick-reference summary of the syntax.
QUOTING
\x where x is non-alphanumeric is a literal x
\Q...\E treat enclosed characters as literal
ESCAPED CHARACTERS
This table applies to ASCII and Unicode environments.
\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..
\U "U" if PCRE2_ALT_BSUX is set (otherwise is an error)
\N{U+hh..} character with Unicode code point hh.. (Unicode mode only)
\uhhhh character with hex code hhhh (if PCRE2_ALT_BSUX is set)
\xhh character with hex code hh
\x{hh..} character with hex code hh..
Note that \0dd is always an octal code. The treatment of backslash fol-
lowed 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).
When \x is not followed by {, from zero to two hexadecimal digits are
read, but if PCRE2_ALT_BSUX is set, \x must be followed by two hexadec-
imal digits to be recognized as a hexadecimal escape; otherwise it
matches a literal "x". Likewise, if \u (in ALT_BSUX mode) is not fol-
lowed by four hexadecimal digits, it matches a literal "u".
CHARACTER TYPES
. 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
\C is dangerous because it may leave the current matching point in the
middle of a UTF-8 or UTF-16 character. The application can lock out the
use of \C by setting the PCRE2_NEVER_BACKSLASH_C option. It is also
possible to build PCRE2 with the use of \C permanently disabled.
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 behav-
iour of these escape sequences is changed to use Unicode properties and
they match many more characters.
GENERAL CATEGORY PROPERTIES FOR \p and \P
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
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
PCRE2 SPECIAL CATEGORY PROPERTIES FOR \p and \P
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
Perl and POSIX space are now the same. Perl added VT to its space char-
acter set at release 5.18.
SCRIPT NAMES FOR \p AND \P
Adlam, Ahom, Anatolian_Hieroglyphs, Arabic, Armenian, Avestan, Bali-
nese, Bamum, Bassa_Vah, Batak, Bengali, Bhaiksuki, Bopomofo, Brahmi,
Braille, Buginese, Buhid, Canadian_Aboriginal, Carian, Caucasian_Alba-
nian, Chakma, Cham, Cherokee, Common, Coptic, Cuneiform, Cypriot,
Cyrillic, Deseret, Devanagari, Dogra, Duployan, Egyptian_Hieroglyphs,
Elbasan, Ethiopic, Georgian, Glagolitic, Gothic, Grantha, Greek,
Gujarati, Gunjala_Gondi, Gurmukhi, Han, Hangul, Hanifi_Rohingya,
Hanunoo, Hatran, Hebrew, Hiragana, Imperial_Aramaic, Inherited,
Inscriptional_Pahlavi, Inscriptional_Parthian, Javanese, Kaithi, Kan-
nada, Katakana, Kayah_Li, Kharoshthi, Khmer, Khojki, Khudawadi, Lao,
Latin, Lepcha, Limbu, Linear_A, Linear_B, Lisu, Lycian, Lydian, Maha-
jani, Makasar, Malayalam, Mandaic, Manichaean, Marchen, Masaram_Gondi,
Medefaidrin, Meetei_Mayek, Mende_Kikakui, Meroitic_Cursive,
Meroitic_Hieroglyphs, Miao, Modi, Mongolian, Mro, Multani, Myanmar,
Nabataean, New_Tai_Lue, Newa, Nko, Nushu, Ogham, Ol_Chiki, Old_Hungar-
ian, Old_Italic, Old_North_Arabian, Old_Permic, Old_Persian, Old_Sog-
dian, Old_South_Arabian, Old_Turkic, Oriya, Osage, Osmanya,
Pahawh_Hmong, Palmyrene, Pau_Cin_Hau, Phags_Pa, Phoenician,
Psalter_Pahlavi, Rejang, Runic, Samaritan, Saurashtra, Sharada, Sha-
vian, Siddham, SignWriting, Sinhala, Sogdian, Sora_Sompeng, Soyombo,
Sundanese, Syloti_Nagri, Syriac, Tagalog, Tagbanwa, Tai_Le, Tai_Tham,
Tai_Viet, Takri, Tamil, Tangut, Telugu, Thaana, Thai, Tibetan, Tifi-
nagh, Tirhuta, Ugaritic, Vai, Warang_Citi, Yi, Zanabazar_Square.
CHARACTER CLASSES
[...] 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
In PCRE2, POSIX character set names recognize only ASCII characters by
default, but some of them use Unicode properties if PCRE2_UCP is set.
You can use \Q...\E inside a character class.
QUANTIFIERS
? 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
ANCHORS AND SIMPLE ASSERTIONS
\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
REPORTED MATCH POINT SETTING
\K set reported start of match
\K is honoured in positive assertions, but ignored in negative ones.
ALTERNATION
expr|expr|expr...
CAPTURING
(...) capturing group
(?<name>...) named capturing group (Perl)
(?'name'...) named capturing group (Perl)
(?P<name>...) named capturing group (Python)
(?:...) non-capturing group
(?|...) non-capturing group; reset group numbers for
capturing groups in each alternative
ATOMIC GROUPS
(?>...) atomic, non-capturing group
COMMENT
(?#....) comment (not nestable)
OPTION SETTING
Changes of these options within a group are automatically cancelled at
the end of the group.
(?i) caseless
(?J) allow duplicate names
(?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
Unsetting x or xx unsets both. Several options may be set at once, and
a mixture of setting and unsetting such as (?i-x) is allowed, but there
may be only one hyphen. Setting (but no unsetting) is allowed after (?^
for example (?^in). An option setting may appear at the start of a non-
capturing group, for example (?i:...).
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)
Note that LIMIT_DEPTH, LIMIT_HEAP, and LIMIT_MATCH can only reduce the
value of the limits set by the caller of pcre2_match() or
pcre2_dfa_match(), not increase them. LIMIT_RECURSION is an obsolete
synonym for LIMIT_DEPTH. The application can lock out the use of (*UTF)
and (*UCP) by setting the PCRE2_NEVER_UTF or PCRE2_NEVER_UCP options,
respectively, at compile time.
NEWLINE CONVENTION
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)
WHAT \R MATCHES
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
LOOKAHEAD AND LOOKBEHIND ASSERTIONS
(?=...) positive look ahead
(?!...) negative look ahead
(?<=...) positive look behind
(?<!...) negative look behind
Each top-level branch of a look behind must be of a fixed length.
BACKREFERENCES
\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)
SUBROUTINE REFERENCES (POSSIBLY RECURSIVE)
(?R) recurse whole pattern
(?n) call subpattern by absolute number
(?+n) call subpattern by relative number
(?-n) call subpattern by relative number
(?&name) call subpattern by name (Perl)
(?P>name) call subpattern by name (Python)
\g<name> call subpattern by name (Oniguruma)
\g'name' call subpattern by name (Oniguruma)
\g<n> call subpattern by absolute number (Oniguruma)
\g'n' call subpattern by absolute number (Oniguruma)
\g<+n> call subpattern by relative number (PCRE2 extension)
\g'+n' call subpattern by relative number (PCRE2 extension)
\g<-n> call subpattern by relative number (PCRE2 extension)
\g'-n' call subpattern by relative number (PCRE2 extension)
CONDITIONAL PATTERNS
(?(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 subpattern for reference
(?(VERSION[>]=n.m) test PCRE2 version
(?(assert) assertion condition
Note the ambiguity of (?(R) and (?(Rn) which might be named reference
conditions or recursion tests. Such a condition is interpreted as a
reference condition if the relevant named group exists.
BACKTRACKING CONTROL
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)
The following act only when a subsequent match failure causes a back-
track to reach them. They all force a match failure, but they differ in
what happens afterwards. Those that advance the start-of-match point do
so only if the pattern is not anchored.
(*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
The effect of one of these verbs in a group called as a subroutine is
confined to the subroutine call.
CALLOUTS
(?C) callout (assumed number 0)
(?Cn) callout with numerical data n
(?C"text") callout with string data
The allowed string delimiters are ` ' " ^ % # $ (which are the same for
the start and the end), and the starting delimiter { matched with the
ending delimiter }. To encode the ending delimiter within the string,
double it.
SEE ALSO
pcre2pattern(3), pcre2api(3), pcre2callout(3), pcre2matching(3),
pcre2(3).
AUTHOR
Philip Hazel
University Computing Service
Cambridge, England.
REVISION
Last updated: 02 September 2018
Copyright (c) 1997-2018 University of Cambridge.
PCRE2 10.32 02 September 2018 PCRE2SYNTAX(3)
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