Alphabet Used in Regular Expressions

ABBYY regular expressions use the following alphabet.

Name	Symbol	Example
Any character	`*`	`"c"*"t"` allows words such as cat and cot.
Letter	`C`	`C"ot"` allows words such as Rot, pot, cot, Dot, and mot.
Uppercase letter	`A`	`A"ot"` allows words such as Rot, Cot, Mot, and Dot.
Lowercase letter	`a`	`a"ot"` allows words such as rot, cot, mot, and dot.
Letter or number	`X`	`X` allows any single letter or number.
Number	`N`	`N"th"` allows words such as 5th, 4th, and 6th.
String	`" "`	`"cot"`
Or	`\|`	`"pl"("o"\|"a")"t"` allows “plot” and “plat”.
Character from a group	`[]`	`[tm]"ot"` allows “tot” and “mot”.
Character not from a group	`[^]`	`[^t]"ot"` allows “cot” and “lot” but not “tot”.
Space (within a group)	`\s`	`[A\s]` allows only the letter A or a space.
Any number of repetitions	`{-}`	`[AB74]{-}` allows any combination of A, B, 7, and 4, of any length.
n repetitions	`{n}`	`N{2}"th"` allows words such as 25th, 84th, and 11th.
From n to m repetitions	`{n-m}`	`N{1-3}"th"` allows words such as 5th, 84th, and 111th.
From 0 to n repetitions	`{-n}`	`N{-2}"th"` allows words such as 84th and 5th.
n or more repetitions	`{n-}`	`N{2-}"th"` allows words such as 25th, 834th, and 34576th.
Subexpression	`()`
Hyphen	`[\-]`
Backslash	`[\\]`

The repetition operators apply to the expression or subexpression on their left.

Examples

Postal code – [0-9]{6}. Sample value: 142172.
Zip code (USA) – [0-9]{5}("-"[0-9]{4}){-1}. Sample values: 55416, 33701-4313.
Income – N{4-8}[,]N{2}. Sample values: 15000,00, 4499,00.
Month (numeric) – ((|"0")[1-9])|("10")|("11")|("12"). Sample values: 4, 05, 12.
Fraction – ("-"|)([0-9]{1-})(|(("."|",")([0-9]{1-}))). Sample values: 1234,567, 0.99, 100,0, -345.6788903.
Email – [A-Za-z0-9_]{1-}(("."|"-")[A-Za-z0-9_]{1-}){-3}"@"[A-Za-z0-9_]{1-}(("."|"-")[A-Za-z0-9_]{1-}){-4}"."([A-Za-z]{2-4}|"asia"|"museum"|"travel"|"example"|"localhost"). Sample values: support@abbyy.com, my-name@company.org.ru, info@gallery.museum.

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