Here are 3 free websites to learn, build, and test regular expressions.
Regular expressions play a great role to easily find a particular thing from a list or webpage by generating a search pattern. You can use them for JavaScript, Ruby, PHP, etc. Those who don’t have any knowledge and have passion about how to use the regular expressions, these 3 websites will help you for sure.
You can use these websites to learn regular expressions from the basic or beginning, test regular expressions with dummy or custom text, and see the results within their interface. This will help you learn regular expressions as well as practice regular expressions to become a champ.
Let’s start with the first free website in this list.
RegExr
In my opinion, RegExr is the most convenient website in this entire list to learn, practice, and test regular expressions. Its interface provides a box and a sample text. You can use the box to enter the regular expression and also customize the text. You can also place the mouse cursor over a character set or word of regular expression to get the definition or meaning in a pop-up.
The left sidebar on its interface is very important. It contains examples, references, cheatsheet, and other options. So, you can start from the scratch, find different types of regular expressions, test them live, and see the results. There is also a Community section which can help you get regular expressions to find match links in HTML, HEX code detection, URL path validator, CSS colors, and more.
This website is a complete course to learn regular expressions and I strongly recommend this website.
Full review is here.
Regex Tester and Debugger Online
Regex Tester and Debugger Online (also known as Online Regex Tester) is one of the best websites in this list to learn and test regular expressions. The right sidebar provides “Cheat Sheet”, which is a very useful feature. This Cheat Sheet contains all the Character Classes, Anchors, Groups & Lookarounds, Quantifier & Alteration, and Escaped Characters which are used in regular expressions. You can use that Cheat Sheet to enter the regular expression of your choice and test it with the custom text.
Another interesting feature here is that it shows “Top Regular Expressions”, which lets you explore regular expressions to:
- Check Empty String.
- Match an MD5.
- Match an email address.
- Match elements of a URL.
- Match integers, and more.
Overall, you can find the most used regular expressions as well as get all the characters and classes used in regular expressions.
Rubular
Rubular (based on Ruby) is a very simple website. It can’t be compared with websites I have mentioned above. However, this site can give you a basic idea to use and test regular expressions with custom text. You can check its quick reference section for Regex where you can see all the text patterns, literal characters, character classes, etc.
The top part of its interface lets you enter the custom text and regular expression to find a particular text string. There are no other options. So, if you already have some basic knowledge about regular expressions, then this site can be useful for you to test regular expressions with custom text.
The Verdict:
The most important and fabulous website in this list is RegExr. It is my favorite also. You can learn the basics, then start building and testing regular expressions easily. The #2 website also gives a strong competition to RegExr, but still I must say RegExr is better than others for sure.
