Boundary Matchers

Until now, we've only been interested in whether or not a match is found at some location within a particular input string. We never cared about where in the string the match was taking place.

You can make your pattern matches more precise by specifying such information with boundary matchers. For example, maybe you're interested in finding a particular word, but only if it appears at the beginning or end of a line. Or maybe you want to know if the match is taking place on a word boundary, or at the end of the previous match.

The following table lists and explains all the boundary matchers.
Boundary Construct     Description
^     The beginning of a line
$     The end of a line
\b     A word boundary
\B     A non-word boundary
\A     The beginning of the input
\G     The end of the previous match
\Z     The end of the input but for the final terminator, if any
\z     The end of the input

The following examples demonstrate the use of boundary matchers ^ and $. As noted above, ^ matches the beginning of a line, and $ matches the end.


Enter your regex: ^dog$
Enter input string to search: dog
I found the text "dog" starting at index 0 and ending at index 3.

Enter your regex: ^dog$
Enter input string to search:       dog
No match found.

Enter your regex: \s*dog$
Enter input string to search:             dog
I found the text "            dog" starting at index 0 and ending at index 15.

Enter your regex: ^dog\w*
Enter input string to search: dogblahblah
I found the text "dogblahblah" starting at index 0 and ending at index 11.

The first example is successful because the pattern occupies the entire input string. The second example fails because the input string contains extra whitespace at the beginning. The third example specifies an expression that allows for unlimited white space, followed by "dog" on the end of the line. The fourth example requires "dog" to be present at the beginning of a line followed by an unlimited number of word characters.

To check if a pattern begins and ends on a word boundary (as opposed to a substring within a longer string), just use \b on either side; for example, \bdog\b



Enter your regex: \bdog\b
Enter input string to search: The dog plays in the yard.
I found the text "dog" starting at index 4 and ending at index 7.

Enter your regex: \bdog\b
Enter input string to search: The doggie plays in the yard.
No match found.

To match the expression on a non-word boundary, use \B instead:


Enter your regex: \bdog\B
Enter input string to search: The dog plays in the yard.
No match found.

Enter your regex: \bdog\B
Enter input string to search: The doggie plays in the yard.
I found the text "dog" starting at index 4 and ending at index 7.

To require the match to occur only at the end of the previous match, use \G:


Enter your regex: dog
Enter input string to search: dog dog
I found the text "dog" starting at index 0 and ending at index 3.
I found the text "dog" starting at index 4 and ending at index 7.

Enter your regex: \Gdog
Enter input string to search: dog dog
I found the text "dog" starting at index 0 and ending at index 3.

Here the second example finds only one match, because the second occurrence of "dog" does not start at the end of the previous match.

Differences Among Greedy, Reluctant, and Possessive Quantifiers

There are subtle differences among greedy, reluctant, and possessive quantifiers.

Greedy quantifiers are considered "greedy" because they force the matcher to read in, or eat, the entire input string prior to attempting the first match. If the first match attempt (the entire input string) fails, the matcher backs off the input string by one character and tries again, repeating the process until a match is found or there are no more characters left to back off from. Depending on the quantifier used in the expression, the last thing it will try matching against is 1 or 0 characters.

The reluctant quantifiers, however, take the opposite approach: They start at the beginning of the input string, then reluctantly eat one character at a time looking for a match. The last thing they try is the entire input string.

Finally, the possessive quantifiers always eat the entire input string, trying once (and only once) for a match. Unlike the greedy quantifiers, possessive quantifiers never back off, even if doing so would allow the overall match to succeed.

To illustrate, consider the input string xfooxxxxxxfoo.


Enter your regex: .*foo  // greedy quantifier
Enter input string to search: xfooxxxxxxfoo
I found the text "xfooxxxxxxfoo" starting at index 0 and ending at index 13.

Enter your regex: .*?foo  // reluctant quantifier
Enter input string to search: xfooxxxxxxfoo
I found the text "xfoo" starting at index 0 and ending at index 4.
I found the text "xxxxxxfoo" starting at index 4 and ending at index 13.

Enter your regex: .*+foo // possessive quantifier
Enter input string to search: xfooxxxxxxfoo
No match found.

The first example uses the greedy quantifier .* to find "anything", zero or more times, followed by the letters "f" "o" "o". Because the quantifier is greedy, the .* portion of the expression first eats the entire input string. At this point, the overall expression cannot succeed, because the last three letters ("f" "o" "o") have already been consumed. So the matcher slowly backs off one letter at a time until the rightmost occurrence of "foo" has been regurgitated, at which point the match succeeds and the search ends.

The second example, however, is reluctant, so it starts by first consuming "nothing". Because "foo" doesn't appear at the beginning of the string, it's forced to swallow the first letter (an "x"), which triggers the first match at 0 and 4. Our test harness continues the process until the input string is exhausted. It finds another match at 4 and 13.

The third example fails to find a match because the quantifier is possessive. In this case, the entire input string is consumed by .*+, leaving nothing left over to satisfy the "foo" at the end of the expression. Use a possessive quantifier for situations where you want to seize all of something without ever backing off; it will outperform the equivalent greedy quantifier in cases where the match is not immediately found.