Python Regex Cheat Sheet

This page provides a Python regex cheat sheet that you can quickly reference while working with regular expressions.

Character sets

PatternMeaning
\wMatch a single word character a-z, A-Z, 0-9, and underscore (_)
\dMatch a single digit 0-9
\sMatch whitespace including \t, \n, and \r and space character
.Match any character except the newline
\WMatch a character except for a word character
\DMatch a character except for a digit
\SMatch a single character except for a whitespace character

Anchors

PatternMeaning
^Match at the beginning of a string
$Match at the end of a string
\bMatch a position defined as a word boundary
\BMatch a position that is not a word boundary

Quantifiers

Quantifiers (Greedy)Non-greedy Quantifiers (Lazy)Meaning
**?Match its preceding element zero or more times.
++?Match its preceding element one or more times.
???Match its preceding element zero or one time.
{n}{n}?Match its preceding element exactly n times.
{n , }{n,}?Match its preceding element at least n times.
{n , m}{n , m}?Match its preceding element from n to m times

Sets & Ranges

PatternMeaning
[XYZ]Match any of three elements X, Y, and Z
[X-Y]Match a range from X to Y
^[XYZ]Match any single element except X, Y, and Z
^[X-Y]Match any single element
{n , }Match its preceding element at least n times.
{n , m}Match its preceding element from n to m times

Capturing Groups

PatternMeaning
(X)Capture the X in the group
(?P<name>X)Capture the X and assign it the name
\NReference the capturing group #N
\g<N>Reference the capturing group #N (alternative syntax)

Alternation

PatternMeaning
X | YMatch either X or Y

Look Around

PatternMeaning
X(?=Y)Match X but only if it is followed by Y
X(?!Y)Match X but only if it is NOT followed by Y
(?<=Y)XMatch X if there is Y before it
(?<!Y)XMatch X if there is NO Y before it

Regex functions

The following table shows the regex function from the re module.

FunctionDescription
findall()Return a list of matches or None
finditer()Return an iterator yielding all non-overlapping matches
search()Return the first match
fullmatch()Return a Match object if the whole string matches a pattern
match()Return the match at the beginning of a string or None
sub()Return a string with matched replaced with a replacement
split()Split a string at the occurrences of matches

Regex Flags

FlagAliasInline FlagMeaning
re.ASCIIre.A?mThe re.ASCII is relevant to the byte patterns only. It makes the \w\W,\b\B\d, \D, and \S perform ASCII-only matching instead of full Unicode matching.
re.DEBUGN/AN/AThe re.DEBUG shows the debug information of compiled pattern.
re.IGNORECASEre.I?iperform case-insensitive matching. It means that the [A-Z] will also match lowercase letters.
re.LOCALEre.L?LThe re.LOCALE is relevant only to the byte pattern. It makes the \w\W\b\B and case-sensitive matching dependent on the current locale. The re.LOCALE is not compatible with the re.ASCII flag.
re.MUTILINEre.M?mThe re.MULTILINE makes the ^ matches at the beginning of a string and at the beginning of each line and $ matches at the end of a string and at the end of each line.
re.DOTALLre.S?sBy default, the dot (.) matches any characters except a newline. The re.DOTALL makes the dot (.) matches all characters including a newline.
re.VERBOSEre.X?xThe re.VERBOSE flag allows you to organize a pattern into logical sections visually and add comments.

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