Notepad++ Regex Cheat Sheet

Notepad++ uses the Boost C++ Regular Expression Library for its regex functionality. Below is a cheat sheet with commonly used regex patterns in Notepad++:

Regex Basics

• . (dot):
  • Matches any single character, except for a newline.
• *:
  • Matches 0 or more occurrences of the preceding character.
• +:
  • Matches 1 or more occurrences of the preceding character.
• ?:
  • Matches 0 or 1 occurrence of the preceding character.

Character Classes

• [ ]:
  • Defines a character class.
• [^ ]:
  • Defines a negated character class.

Anchors

• ^:
  • Matches the start of a line.
• $:
  • Matches the end of a line.

Quantifiers

• {n}:
  • Matches exactly n occurrences.
• {n,}:
  • Matches n or more occurrences.
• {n,m}:
  • Matches between n and m occurrences.

Escape Characters

• \:
  • Escapes a special character.

Common Metacharacters

• \d:
  • Matches any digit (equivalent to [0-9]).
• \D:
  • Matches any non-digit.
• \w:
  • Matches any word character (alphanumeric + underscore).
• \W:
  • Matches any non-word character.
• \s:
  • Matches any whitespace character.
• \S:
  • Matches any non-whitespace character.

Groups and Capturing

• ( ):
  • Groups patterns together.
• \1, \2, …:
  • Refers to the contents of capturing groups (backreferences).

Examples

1. Match Email Addresses:

[A-Za-z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Za-z0-9.-]+\.[A-Za-z]{2,}

2. Extract Dates (YYYY-MM-DD):

\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}

3. Replace Digits:

\d+

4. Extract URLs:

https?://[^\s]+

5. Match Words with ‘ing’:

\b\w+ing\b

These examples can be used in the Find/Replace dialog in Notepad++ with the “Regular expression” search mode selected. Adjust the patterns based on your specific requirements. For more detailed information, refer to the Notepad++ Regular Expressions documentation.