Quick Reference

RegExplorer has quick access to regular expression syntax elements via two menus that automatically insert the correct wildcards or other regular expression syntax for you. Where the regex syntax requires additional input, a dialog box opens up allowing you to enter the additional information, with a built-in help panel giving instructions and examples of the kind of information needed.

Quick and Easy Testing

Once you have your regex ready, just type or paste some text into the Search Text field, and click the Match button. In batch mode, all the matches will be shown in the list box in the bottom of the RegExplorer window.  If you have subexpressions in your regex, you can click on the disclosure triangle on any line in the list box, and it will display each matching subexpression, by number, so you can easily see exactly what matched. If the results werent what you expected, tweak your regex and click the Match button again--no need to re-compile or re-enter your search string!

Great for beginners!

RegExplorer is great for beginners, because it not only has all of the regular expression syntax in easy-to-access menus, it also makes it easier to try out some of the more advanced regular expression syntax elements, like zero-width positive lookahead assertions (which are listed in the Patterns menu as "Only if followed by...").  And since it's so quick and easy to test out regular expressions, you can do a lot of learning just by going through the Match and Patterns menus and seeing what each of the menu entries do.

Easy Cut And Paste

Use contextual menus to cut and paste into text fields, or load text files directly into the Search Text field.

Automatic History

Each time you test a regular expression, it is stored in a History menu, so it's easy to backtrack to an earlier version when you're working on a particularly complicated expression. Replacement patterns have a history menu as well, and the registered version lets you save and load history files so you can re-use frequently-used regex's between sessions.

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