[regex] Regular Expressions- Match Anything

How do I make an expression to match absolutely anything (including whitespaces)?
Example:

Regex: I bought _____ sheep.

Matches: I bought sheep. I bought a sheep. I bought five sheep.

I tried using (.*), but that doesn't seem to be working.

For JavaScript the best and simplest answer would seem to be /.\*/.

As suggested by others /(.*?)/ would work as well but /.\*/ is simpler. The () inside the pattern are not needed, as far as I can see nor the ending ? to match absolutely anything (including empty strings)

NON-SOLUTIONS:

• /[\s\S]/ does NOT match empty strings so it's not the solution.

• /[\s\S]\*/ DOES match also empty strings. But it has a problem: If you use it in your code then you can't comment out such code because the */ is interpreted as end-of-comment.

/([\s\S]\*)/ works and does not have the comment-problem. But it is longer and more complicated to understand than /.*/.

(.*?) does not work for me. I am trying to match comments surrounded by /* */, which may contain multiple lines.

Try this:

([a]|[^a])

This regex matches a or anything else expect a. Absolutely, it means matching everything.

BTW, in my situation, /\*([a]|[^a])*/ matches C style comments.

Thank @mpen for a more concise way.

[\s\S]

If you're using JavaScript, ES2018 added the /s (dotAll) flag. With the /s flag, the dot . will match any character, including a newline.

console.log("line_1\nline_2".match(/.+/s))

Note: It's not supported by all browsers yet.

Because . Find a single character, except newline or line terminator.

So, to match anything, You can use like this: (.|\n)*?

Hope it helps!

<?php
$str = "I bought _ sheep";
preg_match("/I bought (.*?) sheep", $str, $match);
print_r($match);
?>

http://sandbox.phpcode.eu/g/b2243.php

(.*?) matches anything - I've been using it for years.

Honestly alot of the answers are old so i found that if you simply just test any string regardless of character content with "/.*/i" will sufficiently get EVERYTHING.

Choose & memorize 1 of the following!!! :)

[\s\S]*
[\w\W]*
[\d\D]*

Explanation:

\s: whitespace \S: not whitespace

\w: word \W: not word

\d: digit \D: not digit

(You can exchange the * for + if you want 1 or MORE characters [instead of 0 or more]).

BONUS EDIT:

If you want to match everything on a single line, you can use this:

[^\n]+

Explanation:

^: not

\n: linebreak

+: for 1 character or more

1. Regex:

   /I bought.*sheep./
   

   Matches - the whole string till the end of line

   I bought sheep. I bought a sheep. I bought five sheep.

2. Regex:

   /I bought(.*)sheep./
   

   Matches - the whole string and also capture the sub string within () for further use

   I bought sheep. I bought a sheep. I bought five sheep.

   I boughtsheep. I bought a sheep. I bought fivesheep.

   Example using Javascript/Regex

   'I bought sheep. I bought a sheep. I bought five sheep.'.match(/I bought(.*)sheep./)[0];
   

   Output:

   "I bought sheep. I bought a sheep. I bought five sheep."

   'I bought sheep. I bought a sheep. I bought five sheep.'.match(/I bought(.*)sheep./)[1];
   

   Output:

   " sheep. I bought a sheep. I bought five "

The 2018 specification provides the s flag (alias: dotAll), so that . will match any character, including linebreaks:

const regExAll = /.*/s; //notice the 's'

let str = `
Everything
    in  this
            string
                    will
                        be
    matched. Including whitespace (even Linebreaks).
`;

console.log(`Match:`, regExAll.test(str)); //true
console.log(`Index Location:`, str.search(regExAll));

let newStr = str.replace(regExAll,"");
console.log(`Replaced with:`,newStr); //Index: 0

Use .*, and make sure you are using your implementations' equivalent of single-line so you will match on line endings.

There is a great explanation here -> http://www.regular-expressions.info/dot.html

/.*/ works great if there are no line breaks. If it has to match line breaks, here are some solutions:

Normally the dot matches any character except newlines.

So if .* isn't working, set the "dot matches newlines, too" option (or use (?s).*).

If you're using JavaScript, which doesn't have a "dotall" option, try [\s\S]*. This means "match any number of characters that are either whitespace or non-whitespace" - effectively "match any string".

Another option that only works for JavaScript (and is not recognized by any other regex flavor) is [^]* which also matches any string. But [\s\S]* seems to be more widely used, perhaps because it's more portable.

I recommend use /(?=.*...)/g

Example

const text1 = 'I am using regex';
/(?=.*regex)/g.test(text1) // true

const text2 = 'regex is awesome';
/(?=.*regex)/g.test(text2) // true

const text3 = 'regex is util';
/(?=.*util)(?=.*regex)/g.test(text3) // true

const text4 = 'util is necessary';
/(?=.*util)(?=.*regex)/g.test(text4) // false because need regex in text

Use regex101 to test

Try this:

I bought (.* )?sheep

or even

I bought .*sheep