[regex] Setting a minimum/maximum character count for any character using a regular expression

I am trying to write a regular expression that will be used on a text box to validate its contents to see if it is between 1 and 35. The characters within the text box can be anything: numeric, alpha, punctuation, white space, etc. Here is what I have so far:

^[:;,\-@0-9a-zA-Zâéè'.\s]{1,35}$

As you can see, I have to list out all characters. Is there an easier way to say "all" characters?

This question is related to regex

The answer is


If you want to set Min 1 count and no Max length,

^.{1,}$

Yes, . (dot) would match any character. Use:

^.{1,35}$

Like this: .

The . means any character except newline (which sometimes is but often isn't included, check your regex flavour).

You can rewrite your expression as ^.{1,35}$, which should match any line of length 1-35.


It's usually the metacharacter . when not inside a character class.

So use ^.{1,35}$. However, dot does not include newlines unless the dot-all modifier is applied against it.

You can use ^[\S\s]{1,35}$ without any modifiers, and this includes newlines as well.


If you also want to match newlines, then you might want to use "^[\s\S]{1,35}$" (depending on the regex engine). Otherwise, as others have said, you should used "^.{1,35}$"