Comparison of regular expression engines
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This is a comparison of regular expression engines.
Contents
Libraries
Languages
Language | Official website | Software license | Remarks |
---|---|---|---|
.NET | MSDN | MIT License[Note 1]:{{{3}}}[Note 2]:{{{3}}} | |
POSIX C (C) | libc/regex from BSD | BSD | According to regex(3), available from at least 4.4BSD (if not earlier) |
C++11 (C++) | C++ standards website | ? | Since ISO14822:2011(e) |
D | D | Boost Software License[Note 3]:{{{3}}} | |
Go | Golang.org | BSD-style | |
Haskell | Haskell.org | BSD3 | Omitted in the language report, and in GHC's Hierarchical Libraries |
Java | Java | GNU General Public License | REs are written as strings in source code: all backslashes must be doubled, harming readability. |
JavaScript (ECMAScript) | ECMA-262 | BSD3 | Limited but REs are first-class citizens of the language with a specific /.../mod syntax. |
Julia | JuliaLang.org | MIT License | REs are part of the language core library using PCRE built-in and an optional wrapper for (C code) ICU is available. |
Lua | Lua.org | MIT License | Uses simplified, limited dialect; can be bound to more powerful library, like PCRE or an alternative parser like LPeg. |
Mathematica | Wolfram | Proprietary | |
Free Pascal (Object Pascal) | www.freepascal.org | LGPL with static linking exception | Free Pascal 2.6+ ships with TRegExpr from Sorokin and two other regular expression libraries; See wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/Regexpr. |
Cocoa (Objective-C) | Apple | Proprietary | As of 2012[update], available on only iOS 4+ and OS X 10.7+ |
OCaml | Caml | LGPL | |
Perl | Perl.com | Artistic License, or GNU General Public License | Full, central part of the language |
PHP | PHP.net | PHP License | Has two implementations, with PCRE being the more efficient in speed, functions |
Python | python.org | Python Software Foundation License | Python has two major implementations, the built in re and the regex library. |
Ruby | ruby-doc.org | GNU Library General Public License | Ruby 1.8 and 1.9 use different engines; 1.9 integrates Oniguruma. |
SAP ABAP | SAP.com | Proprietary | |
Tcl | tcl.tk | Tcl/Tk License (BSD-style) |
Tcl library doubles as a regular expression library. |
ActionScript 3 | ActionScript Technology Center | Free | |
Wolfram Language | Wolfram Research | Proprietary; usable for free on a limited scale on the Wolfram Development platform. |
Language features
NOTE: An application using a library for regular expression support does not necessarily offer the full set of features of the library, e.g. GNU grep which uses PCRE does not offer lookahead support, though PCRE does.
Part 1
"+" quantifier | Negated character classes | Non-greedy quantifiers[Note 1]:{{{3}}} | Shy groups[Note 2]:{{{3}}} | Recursion | Look-ahead | Look-behind | Backreferences[Note 3]:{{{3}}} | >9 indexable captures | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Boost.Regex | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes[Note 4]:{{{3}}} | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Boost.Xpressive | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes[Note 5]:{{{3}}} | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
CL-PPCRE | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
EmEditor | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
FREJ | No[Note 6]:{{{3}}} | No | Some[Note 6]:{{{3}}} | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
GLib/GRegex | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | No | ? | ? | ? | ? |
GNU grep | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
Haskell | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
ICU Regex | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Java | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
JavaScript (ECMAScript) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
JGsoft | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Lua | Yes | Yes | Some[Note 7]:{{{3}}} | No | No | No | No | Yes | No |
.NET | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
OCaml | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No |
OmniOutliner 3.6.2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | ? | ? |
PCRE | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Perl | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
PHP | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Python | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes[Note 8]:{{{3}}} | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Qt/QRegExp | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
R[Note 9]:{{{3}}} | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
RE2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes |
Ruby | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
TRE | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No |
Vim 7.4b.000 (2013-07-28) [±] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
RGX | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Tcl | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
TRegExpr | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
XRegExp | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
- ↑ Non-greedy quantifiers match as few characters as possible, instead of the default as many. Note that many older, pre-POSIX engines were non-greedy and didn't have greedy quantifiers at all.
- ↑ Shy groups, also called non-capturing groups cannot be referred to with backreferences; non-capturing groups are used to speed up matching where the groups content needs not be accessed later.
- ↑ Backreferences enable referring to previously matched groups in later parts of the regex and/or replacement string (where applicable). For instance, ([ab]+)\1 matches "abab" but not "abaab".
- ↑ http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_47_0/libs/regex/doc/html/boost_regex/syntax/perl_syntax.html#boost_regex.syntax.perl_syntax.recursive_expressions
- ↑ http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_47_0/doc/html/xpressive/user_s_guide.html#boost_xpressive.user_s_guide.grammars_and_nested_matches.embedding_a_regex_by_reference
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 FREJ have no repetitive quantifiers, but have "optional" element which behaves similar to simple "?" quantifier.
- ↑ Lua's only non-greedy quantifier is
-
, which is a non-greedy version of*
. It does not have non-greedy versions of+
or?
; in the former case, the non-greedy effect can be achieved by repeating the token followed by-
, but in the latter case, there is no equivalent. - ↑ Supported by the optional regex library only.
- ↑ Regular Expressions as used in R
Part 2
Directives[Note 1]:{{{3}}} | Conditionals | Atomic groups[Note 2]:{{{3}}} | Named capture[Note 3]:{{{3}}} | Comments | Embedded code | Unicode property support [1] | Balancing groups[Note 4]:{{{3}}} | Variable-length look-behinds[Note 5]:{{{3}}} | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Boost.Regex | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Some[Note 6]:{{{3}}} | No | No |
Boost.Xpressive | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No |
CL-PPCRE | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Some[Note 6]:{{{3}}} | No | No |
EmEditor | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | No | ? | No | No |
FREJ | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ? | No | No |
GLib/GRegex | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Some[Note 6]:{{{3}}} | No | No |
GNU grep | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Haskell | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | No | No | No | No |
ICU Regex | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | No |
Java | Yes | No | Yes | Yes[Note 7]:{{{3}}} | Yes | No | Some[Note 6]:{{{3}}} | No | No |
JavaScript (ECMAScript) | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
JGsoft | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Some[Note 6]:{{{3}}} | No | Yes |
Lua | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
.NET | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Some[Note 6]:{{{3}}} | Yes | Yes |
OCaml | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
OmniOutliner 3.6.2 | ? | ? | ? | ? | No | No | ? | No | No |
PCRE | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Perl | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
PHP | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Python | Yes | Yes | Yes[Note 8]:{{{3}}} | Yes | Yes | No | Yes[Note 9]:{{{3}}} | No | Yes[Note 8]:{{{3}}} |
Qt/QRegExp | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
RE2 | Yes | No | ? | Yes | No | No | Some[Note 6]:{{{3}}} | No | No |
Ruby | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Some[Note 6]:{{{3}}} | No | No |
Tcl | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | No |
TRE | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | ? | No | No |
Vim | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Yes |
RGX | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No |
XRegExp | Leading only | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No |
- ↑ Also known as Flags modifiers or Option letters. Example pattern: "(?i:test)".
- ↑ Also called Independent sub-expressions
- ↑ Similar to back references but with names instead of indices
- ↑ Special feature allowing to match balanced constructs without recursion
- ↑ Refers to the possibility of including quantifiers in look-behinds, thus making their length unpredictable
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 Unicode property support may be incomplete (products are continuously updated!). All will be incomplete when a new Unicode revision is released until they are updated to comply.
- ↑ Available as of JDK7
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Supported by the optional regex library only.
- ↑ May only be available in the regex library when used with Python versions after 3.3
API features
Native UTF-16 support[Note 1]:{{{3}}} | Native UTF-8 support[Note 1]:{{{3}}} | Multi-line matching | Partial match[Note 2]:{{{3}}} | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Boost.Regex | No | No | Yes | Yes |
GLib/GRegex | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
ICU Regex | Yes | No | Yes | ? |
Java | No | Partial[Note 3]:{{{3}}} | Yes | Yes |
.NET | No[Note 4]:{{{3}}} | Yes | Yes | ? |
PCRE | Yes[Note 5]:{{{3}}} | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Qt/QRegExp | Yes | No | No | ? |
Tcl | Yes | Yes[Note 6]:{{{3}}} | Yes | ? |
TRE | No | ? | Yes | ? |
RGX | No | No | Yes | ? |
wxWdigets::wxRegEx[Note 7]:{{{3}}} | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
XRegExp | Yes | ? | Yes | ? |
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Means the format can be used internally without explicit conversion.
- ↑ Partial match of the whole regular expression. For example the pattern ".*END$" will match any string partially, but only strings ending with END fully.[1]
- ↑ Supports Unicode 4.0 standard from 2003; latest plans for JDK7 include Unicode 6.0 (2011) support.[2]
- ↑ Implementation uses original UCS-2 support/features, so it only recognizes 64K chars total (vs UTF-16's 1,112,064 characters). A Microsoft developer-representative answered a bug report on this as "will not fix" in 2010.[3].
- ↑ Since version 8.30
- ↑ Tcl includes facilities to convert to and from UTF-8.
- ↑ wxRegEx uses any system supplied POSIX library or if not available and for Unicode mode uses Henry Spencer's library.
See also
References
External links
- Regular Expression Flavor Comparison — Detailed comparison of the most popular regular expression flavors
- Regexp Syntax Summary
- Online Regular Expression Testing - with support for Java, JavaScript, .Net, PHP, Python and Ruby