Is there an online RegexBuddy-like regular expression analyzer?

Question

I'm looking for an online utility that will prettify and add explanatory comments to a regular expression. Does one exist?

i have made some simple [regex-analyzer](http://foo123.github.io/examples/regex-analyzer/) and [regex-composer](http://foo123.github.io/examples/regex-composer/) online in javascript (which include a couple of twists as well) — Nikos M., Aug 05 '14 at 21:07

score 52 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 18 '14 at 07:51

52

I like the online tool: http://regexr.com

When you hover over the regular expression you will get an explanation of that part.

edited Sep 18 '14 at 07:51

Andy E

answered Mar 22 '10 at 12:00

Rody van Sambeek

5

it's been almost 3 years from this post and this is still best online regex editor – confiq Jan 21 '13 at 09:00
How do I even select a language? Surely the syntax is not the same for various languages. – Acumenus Feb 26 '14 at 22:30
3

From RegExr's help: _RegExr uses your browser's RegExp engine for matching, and its syntax highlighting and documentation reflect the JavaScript RegExp standard._ Which makes it of marginal utility for determining differences between various regex implementations. – Perry Jan 09 '16 at 21:02
3

It doesn't seem to explain the "number of steps" like regexbuddy does, unless I'm missing something. – Wildcard Mar 19 '16 at 00:06
1

It's good, maybe the best online, and still easily outclassed by regex buddy. And I mean both for crazy power user productivity *and* for people who just want maximum ease of use, or even for learning the basics. – whitneyland Nov 24 '17 at 17:24

score 23 · Answer 2 · edited Jul 21 '17 at 15:59

23

For what it's worth, I also like:

regex101.com, which is quite powerful, but technical. It features timing and steps taken results as well as permalinks for sharing a regex with explanation and test data.
regexper.com, which draws railroad diagrams of regexes. The results are very nice to look at and easy to understand, but there are no textual explanations.

Both are free to use.

edited Jul 21 '17 at 15:59

River

answered Jul 09 '13 at 14:23

barfuin

1

I find regex101 most usable in terms of syntax highlighting and explanation. +1 for that. – Piotr Zierhoffer Oct 20 '15 at 15:11
Of the ones mentioned/googled, regex101 just now worked best for a Python RE (evaluated on paste, works). – handle Jun 23 '16 at 05:07

score 6 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 19 '12 at 02:05

6

regexpal is the one I always use. I prefer it to the Flash-based RegExr.

answered Jun 19 '12 at 02:05

Joe Shaw

score 6 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 22 '10 at 14:14

6

There's a bunch of them listed in Steven Levithan's blog.

answered Mar 22 '10 at 14:14

Tim Pietzcker

Some great links there. I love this one: http://osteele.com/tools/reanimator/ – Andy E Mar 22 '10 at 18:51

TheodorosPloumis · Answer 5 · 2015-06-03T13:40:03.383

2

I currently use http://rick.measham.id.au/paste/explain.pl from Rick Measham. It is a regex explanation tool that simply works.

edited Jun 03 '15 at 13:40

answered Jan 08 '14 at 13:12

TheodorosPloumis

5 Answers5