Comparison of regular expression engines

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This is a comparison of regular expression engines.

Libraries

List of regular expression libraries
Name Official website Programming language Software license Used by
Boost.Regex[Note 1]:{{{3}}} Boost C++ Libraries C++ Boost  
Boost.Xpressive Boost C++ Libraries C++ Boost  
CL-PPCRE Edi Weitz Common Lisp BSD  
cppre Jeff Stuart C++ GPL  
DEELX RegExLab C++ Free personal and commercial use  
FREJ[Note 2]:{{{3}}} Fuzzy Regular Expressions for Java Java LGPL  
GLib/GRegex[Note 3]:{{{3}}} Marco Barisione C LGPL  
GRETA Microsoft Research C++ ?  
ICU International Components for Unicode C, C++[Note 4]:{{{3}}} ICU  
Jakarta/Regexp The Apache Jakarta Project Java Apache  
java.util.regex Java's User manual Java Java license jEdit
JRegex JRegex Java BSD  
Oniguruma Kosako C BSD Atom, Take Command Console, Tera Term, TextMate, Sublime Text and SubEthaEdit
Pattwo Stevesoft Java (compatible with Java 1.0) LGPL  
PCRE pcre.org C, C++[Note 5]:{{{3}}} BSD Nginx, Julia, HHVM, Notepad++
Qt/QRegExp Digia C++ Qt GNU GPL v. 3.0,

Qt GNU LGPL v. 2.1, Qt Commercial

 Kate, Kile
regex - Henry Spencer's regular expression libraries ArgList C BSD  
RE2 RE2 C++ BSD  
Henry Spencer's Advanced Regular Expressions Tcl C BSD  
TRE[Note 2]:{{{3}}} Ville Laurikari C BSD  
TPerlRegEx TPerlRegEx VCL Component Object Pascal MPLv1.1  
TRegExpr RegExp Studio Object Pascal Dual-license: freeware, or LGPL with static linking exception  
RGX RGX C++ based component library P6R  
XRegExp XRegExp JavaScript MIT  
Wolfram Language (Mathematica) Wolfram Language Documentation Center Wolfram Language Mathematica, the Wolfram Development Platform

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Languages

List of languages and frameworks including regular expression support
Language Official website Software license Remarks
.NET MSDN MIT License[Note 6]:{{{3}}}[Note 7]:{{{3}}}
POSIX C (C) libc/regex from BSD BSD According to regex(3), available from at least 4.4BSD (if not earlier)
C++11 (C++) C++ standards website ? Since ISO14822:2011(e)
D D Boost Software License[Note 8]:{{{3}}}
Go Golang.org BSD-style
Haskell Haskell.org BSD3 Omitted in the language report, and in GHC's Hierarchical Libraries
Java Java GNU General Public License REs are written as strings in source code: all backslashes must be doubled, harming readability.
JavaScript (ECMAScript) ECMA-262 BSD3 Limited but REs are first-class citizens of the language with a specific /.../mod syntax.
Julia JuliaLang.org MIT License REs are part of the language core library using PCRE built-in and an optional wrapper for (C code) ICU is available.
Lua Lua.org MIT License Uses simplified, limited dialect; can be bound to more powerful library, like PCRE or an alternative parser like LPeg.
Mathematica Wolfram Proprietary
Free Pascal (Object Pascal) www.freepascal.org LGPL with static linking exception Free Pascal 2.6+ ships with TRegExpr from Sorokin and two other regular expression libraries; See wiki.lazarus.freepascal.org/Regexpr.
Cocoa (Objective-C) Apple Proprietary As of 2012, available on only iOS 4+ and OS X 10.7+
OCaml Caml LGPL
Perl Perl.com Artistic License, or GNU General Public License Full, central part of the language
PHP PHP.net PHP License Has two implementations, with PCRE being the more efficient in speed, functions
Python python.org Python Software Foundation License Python has two major implementations, the built in re and the regex library.
Ruby ruby-doc.org GNU Library General Public License Ruby 1.8 and 1.9 use different engines; 1.9 integrates Oniguruma.
SAP ABAP SAP.com Proprietary
Tcl tcl.tk Tcl/Tk License
(BSD-style)		 Tcl library doubles as a regular expression library.
ActionScript 3 ActionScript Technology Center Free
Wolfram Language Wolfram Research Proprietary; usable for free on a limited scale on the Wolfram Development platform.

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Language features

NOTE: An application using a library for regular expression support does not necessarily offer the full set of features of the library, e.g. GNU grep which uses PCRE does not offer lookahead support, though PCRE does.

Part 1

Language feature comparison (part 1)
"+" quantifier Negated character classes Non-greedy quantifiers[Note 9]:{{{3}}} Shy groups[Note 10]:{{{3}}} Recursion Look-ahead Look-behind Backreferences[Note 11]:{{{3}}} >9 indexable captures
Boost.Regex Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes[Note 12]:{{{3}}} Yes Yes Yes Yes
Boost.Xpressive Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes[Note 13]:{{{3}}} Yes Yes Yes Yes
CL-PPCRE Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes
EmEditor Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No
FREJ No[Note 14]:{{{3}}} No Some[Note 14]:{{{3}}} Yes No No No Yes Yes
GLib/GRegex Yes ? Yes ? No ? ? ? ?
GNU grep Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes ?
Haskell Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes
ICU Regex Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Java Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes
JavaScript (ECMAScript) Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes
JGsoft Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Lua Yes Yes Some[Note 15]:{{{3}}} No No No No Yes No
.NET Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes
OCaml Yes Yes No No No No No Yes No
OmniOutliner 3.6.2 Yes Yes Yes No No No No ? ?
PCRE Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Perl Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
PHP Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Python Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes[Note 16]:{{{3}}} Yes Yes Yes Yes
Qt/QRegExp Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes
R[Note 17]:{{{3}}} Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes
RE2 Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No Yes
Ruby Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
TRE Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes No
Vim 7.4b.000 (2013-07-28) [±] Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No
RGX Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Tcl Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes
TRegExpr Yes ? Yes ? ? ? ? ? ?
XRegExp Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes

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Part 2

Language feature comparison (part 2)
Directives[Note 18]:{{{3}}} Conditionals Atomic groups[Note 19]:{{{3}}} Named capture[Note 20]:{{{3}}} Comments Embedded code Unicode property support [1] Balancing groups[Note 21]:{{{3}}} Variable-length look-behinds[Note 22]:{{{3}}}
Boost.Regex Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Some[Note 23]:{{{3}}} No No
Boost.Xpressive Yes No Yes Yes Yes No No No No
CL-PPCRE Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Some[Note 23]:{{{3}}} No No
EmEditor Yes Yes ? ? Yes No ? No No
FREJ No No Yes Yes Yes No ? No No
GLib/GRegex Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Some[Note 23]:{{{3}}} No No
GNU grep Yes Yes ? Yes Yes No No No No
Haskell ? ? ? ? ? No No No No
ICU Regex Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No No
Java Yes No Yes Yes[Note 24]:{{{3}}} Yes No Some[Note 23]:{{{3}}} No No
JavaScript (ECMAScript) No No No No No No No No No
JGsoft Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Some[Note 23]:{{{3}}} No Yes
Lua No No No No No No No No No
.NET Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Some[Note 23]:{{{3}}} Yes Yes
OCaml No No No No No No No No No
OmniOutliner 3.6.2 ? ? ? ? No No ? No No
PCRE Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
Perl Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No
PHP Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No
Python Yes Yes Yes[Note 25]:{{{3}}} Yes Yes No Yes[Note 26]:{{{3}}} No Yes[Note 25]:{{{3}}}
Qt/QRegExp No No No No No No No No No
RE2 Yes No  ? Yes No No Some[Note 23]:{{{3}}} No No
Ruby Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Some[Note 23]:{{{3}}} No No
Tcl Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No No
TRE Yes No No No Yes No ? No No
Vim Yes No Yes No No No No No Yes
RGX Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No
XRegExp Leading only No No Yes Yes No Yes No No

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API features

API feature comparison
Native UTF-16 support[Note 27]:{{{3}}} Native UTF-8 support[Note 27]:{{{3}}} Multi-line matching Partial match[Note 28]:{{{3}}}
Boost.Regex No No Yes Yes
GLib/GRegex Yes Yes Yes ?
ICU Regex Yes No Yes ?
Java No Partial[Note 29]:{{{3}}} Yes Yes
.NET No[Note 30]:{{{3}}} Yes Yes ?
PCRE Yes[Note 31]:{{{3}}} Yes Yes Yes
Qt/QRegExp Yes No No ?
Tcl Yes Yes[Note 32]:{{{3}}} Yes ?
TRE No ? Yes ?
RGX No No Yes ?
wxWdigets::wxRegEx[Note 33]:{{{3}}} Yes Yes Yes ?
XRegExp Yes ? Yes ?

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See also

References

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External links


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  1. ↑ http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr18/
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