RegEx for Beginners: Copy and Paste Patterns

RegEx (short for “regular expression”) is a short pattern that tells a tool which words or web addresses to look for. You don’t need to learn it: copy a pattern below, paste it in, and change the example words to yours.

How to Use a Pattern in 3 Steps

1. In your tool, choose the RegEx option. It may be called “matches RegEx”, “regex” or “regular expression”.
2. Click Copy under a pattern below, then paste it in.
3. If the pattern has example words in it, change them to your own words. Leave the symbols around them as they are. In a list, put a | between each word.

Good to Know

• Capital letters: some tools ignore capital letters and some don’t. If yours doesn’t, look for an “ignore case” option, or type the pattern with the same capitals as your text.
• Web addresses: the patterns in the Websites table work on full web addresses, like https://www.zillow.com/homes/. The first three also work on just the website name, like zillow.com.
• Two patterns need a feature some tools don’t have. “Has none of these words” and “Has two words, in any order” use a lookahead, the (?= or (?! part. Google Search Console and Looker Studio don’t support it, so those two patterns won’t work there.

Words

Words patterns

To find text that…	Copy this pattern	Finds	Doesn’t find
Starts with certain words	^real estateCopy	Real Estate Agent	Tampa Real Estate
Ends with certain words	agency$Copy	Real Estate Agency	Agency of Tampa
Has any word from a list	\b(agent|agency|realtor|broker)\bCopy	Mortgage broker	Home builder
Has none of these words	^(?![\s\S]*\b(cheap|free)\b)Copy	Best homes	Free home value
Has a whole word, not part of a longer word	\bagent\bCopy	Agent: Jo Smith	Real estate agents
Has a word, with or without an s on the end	\bagents?\bCopy	Top agents in Tampa	Real estate agency
Has two words, in any order	^(?=[\s\S]*real estate)(?=[\s\S]*agent)Copy	Agent for real estate	Insurance agent
Has one word, then another later on	real estate[\s\S]*agentCopy	Real estate team and agent	Agent for real estate

Numbers and Questions

Numbers and Questions patterns

To find text that…	Copy this pattern	Finds	Doesn’t find
Has a number anywhere	\dCopy	Top 10 agents	Real estate agent
Starts with a number, like "10 Best…"	^\dCopy	10 Best Agents in Tampa	Top 10 agents
Has a number from 2020 to 2029, like a year	\b202\d\bCopy	Best agents of 2026	Since 1999
Has a price (a $ sign, then a number)	\$\dCopy	Homes from $250,000	Save money
Is a question (has a question mark)	\?Copy	What does an agent do? Duties explained	How to pick an agent
Starts with a question word (how, what, is, can, do…)	^(how|what|why|when|where|who|whose|which|can|could|should|would|will|do|does|did|is|are|was|were)\bCopy	Is Zillow accurate	Island homes

Websites

The first three patterns work in both URL and domain fields. The last four work only in URL fields, which hold the full address. Keep the \ before each dot.

Websites patterns

To find text that…	Copy this pattern	Finds	Doesn’t find
Matches one domain	^([a-z]+://)?([^/?#]*\.)?zillow\.com([/?#:]|$)Copy	https://www.zillow.com/homes/	https://www.myzillow.com/
Matches any domain from a list	^([a-z]+://)?([^/?#]*\.)?(zillow\.com|realtor\.com|redfin\.com)([/?#:]|$)Copy	realtor.com	trulia.com
Matches a .gov or .edu domain	^([a-z]+://)?[^/?#]*\.(gov|edu)([/?#:]|$)Copy	https://www.usf.edu/	https://governor.com/
Has a folder in the URL, like /blog/	/blog([/?#]|$)Copy	https://example.com/blog/post	https://example.com/blogs/
Is a home page URL	^https?://[^/?#]+/?(\?utm_[^#]*)?(#.*)?$Copy	https://example.com/	https://example.com/about
Is a PDF URL	\.pdf([?#]|$)Copy	https://example.com/guide.pdf	https://example.com/pdf-guide
Has utm_ tracking in the URL	[?&]utm_Copy	https://example.com/?utm_source=google	https://example.com/utm-guide

One Tip: Words With Symbols in Them

If your words have any of these symbols in them, put a backslash (\) in front of each one: . * + ? ^ $ ( ) [ ] { } | \

For example, St. Pete becomes St\. Pete.