Pattern groups

Often you need to apply a regular expression to a group of characters or metacharacters.

To group a set, put the characters in parentheses ( ).

The group is given a number in the Match Groups box and the matching text is displayed next to it.

If a match occurs, you can see which text matches which group in the Match Groups box.

For example, you have an HTML code with <UL>first in the text.

You type (<.L>)([a-z ]*) as the regular expression.

In the Text field, <UL>first is highlighted in red.

In Match Groups, the groups are broken down:

• Group 1 <UL>
• Group 2 first