Lookahead & Lookbehind RegExp Cheat Sheet

Sep 1, 2022•2 min read

Examples

Given the string foobarbarfoo:

bar(?=bar)     finds the 1st bar ("bar" which has "bar" after it)
bar(?!bar)     finds the 2nd bar ("bar" which does not have "bar" after it)
(?<=foo)bar    finds the 1st bar ("bar" which has "foo" before it)
(?<!foo)bar    finds the 2nd bar ("bar" which does not have "foo" before it)

You can also combine them:

(?<=foo)bar(?=bar)    finds the 1st bar ("bar" with "foo" before it and "bar" after it)

Definitions

Look ahead positive (?=)

Find expression A where expression B follows:

A(?=B)

Look ahead negative (?!)

Find expression A where expression B does not follow:

A(?!B)

Look behind positive (?<=)

Find expression A where expression B precedes:

(?<=B)A

Look behind negative (?<!)

Find expression A where expression B does not precede:

(?<!B)A

Atomic groups (?>)

An atomic group exits a group and throws away alternative patterns after the first matched pattern inside the group (backtracking is disabled).

  • (?>foo|foot)s applied to foots will match its 1st alternative foo, then fail as s does not immediately follow, and stop as backtracking is disabled

A non-atomic group will allow backtracking; if subsequent matching ahead fails, it will backtrack and use alternative patterns until a match for the entire expression is found or all possibilities are exhausted.

  • (foo|foot)s applied to foots will:
    1. match its 1st alternative foo, then fail as s does not immediately follow in foots, and backtrack to its 2nd alternative;
    2. match its 2nd alternative foot, then succeed as s immediately follows in foots, and stop.
    3. then grouped as foot and s

Non-capturing groups (?:)

capturing and no single groups。

example: foobarbarfoo

foo(?:bar) applied to foobarbarfoo will match foobar

foobar applied to foobarbarfoo will match foobar

foo(bar) applied to foobarbarfoo will match foobar then grouped as foo and bar

Some resources

Online testers