OpenSearch/docs/reference/query-dsl/regexp-syntax.asciidoc

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[[regexp-syntax]]
== Regular expression syntax
A https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expression[regular expression] is a way to
match patterns in data using placeholder characters, called operators.
{es} supports regular expressions in the following queries:
* <<query-dsl-regexp-query, `regexp`>>
* <<query-dsl-query-string-query, `query_string`>>
{es} uses https://lucene.apache.org/core/[Apache Lucene]'s regular expression
engine to parse these queries.
[float]
[[regexp-reserved-characters]]
=== Reserved characters
Lucene's regular expression engine supports all Unicode characters. However, the
following characters are reserved as operators:
....
. ? + * | { } [ ] ( ) " \
....
Depending on the <<regexp-optional-operators, optional operators>> enabled, the
following characters may also be reserved:
....
# @ & < > ~
....
To use one of these characters literally, escape it with a preceding
backslash or surround it with double quotes. For example:
....
\@ # renders as a literal '@'
\\ # renders as a literal '\'
"john@smith.com" # renders as 'john@smith.com'
....
[float]
[[regexp-standard-operators]]
=== Standard operators
Lucene's regular expression engine does not use the
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perl_Compatible_Regular_Expressions[Perl
Compatible Regular Expressions (PCRE)] library, but it does support the
following standard operators.
`.`::
+
--
Matches any character. For example:
....
ab. # matches 'aba', 'abb', 'abz', etc.
....
--
`?`::
+
--
Repeat the preceding character zero or one times. Often used to make the
preceding character optional. For example:
....
abc? # matches 'ab' and 'abc'
....
--
`+`::
+
--
Repeat the preceding character one or more times. For example:
....
ab+ # matches 'abb', 'abbb', 'abbbb', etc.
....
--
`*`::
+
--
Repeat the preceding character zero or more times. For example:
....
ab* # matches 'ab', 'abb', 'abbb', 'abbbb', etc.
....
--
`{}`::
+
--
Minimum and maximum number of times the preceding character can repeat. For
example:
....
a{2} # matches 'aa'
a{2,4} # matches 'aa', 'aaa', and 'aaaa'
a{2,} # matches 'a` repeated two or more times
....
--
`|`::
+
--
OR operator. The match will succeed if the longest pattern on either the left
side OR the right side matches. For example:
....
abc|xyz # matches 'abc' and 'xyz'
....
--
`( … )`::
+
--
Forms a group. You can use a group to treat part of the expression as a single
character. For example:
....
abc(def)? # matches 'abc' and 'abcdef' but not 'abcd'
....
--
`[ … ]`::
+
--
Match one of the characters in the brackets. For example:
....
[abc] # matches 'a', 'b', 'c'
....
Inside the brackets, `-` indicates a range unless `-` is the first character or
escaped. For example:
....
[a-c] # matches 'a', 'b', or 'c'
[-abc] # '-' is first character. Matches '-', 'a', 'b', or 'c'
[abc\-] # Escapes '-'. Matches 'a', 'b', 'c', or '-'
....
A `^` before a character in the brackets negates the character or range. For
example:
....
[^abc] # matches any character except 'a', 'b', or 'c'
[^a-c] # matches any character except 'a', 'b', or 'c'
[^-abc] # matches any character except '-', 'a', 'b', or 'c'
[^abc\-] # matches any character except 'a', 'b', 'c', or '-'
....
--
[float]
[[regexp-optional-operators]]
=== Optional operators
You can use the `flags` parameter to enable more optional operators for
Lucene's regular expression engine.
To enable multiple operators, use a `|` separator. For example, a `flags` value
of `COMPLEMENT|INTERVAL` enables the `COMPLEMENT` and `INTERVAL` operators.
[float]
==== Valid values
`ALL` (Default)::
Enables all optional operators.
`COMPLEMENT`::
+
--
Enables the `~` operator. You can use `~` to negate the shortest following
pattern. For example:
....
a~bc # matches 'adc' and 'aec' but not 'abc'
....
--
`INTERVAL`::
+
--
Enables the `<>` operators. You can use `<>` to match a numeric range. For
example:
....
foo<1-100> # matches 'foo1', 'foo2' ... 'foo99', 'foo100'
foo<01-100> # matches 'foo01', 'foo02' ... 'foo99', 'foo100'
....
--
`INTERSECTION`::
+
--
Enables the `&` operator, which acts as an AND operator. The match will succeed
if patterns on both the left side AND the right side matches. For example:
....
aaa.+&.+bbb # matches 'aaabbb'
....
--
`ANYSTRING`::
+
--
Enables the `@` operator. You can use `@` to match any entire
string.
You can combine the `@` operator with `&` and `~` operators to create an
"everything except" logic. For example:
....
@&~(abc.+) # matches everything except terms beginning with 'abc'
....
--
[float]
[[regexp-unsupported-operators]]
=== Unsupported operators
Lucene's regular expression engine does not support anchor operators, such as
`^` (beginning of line) or `$` (end of line). To match a term, the regular
expression must match the entire string.