gherkins/regexpbuilderphp

🦉 human-readable regular expressions

PHP

1,341

218 commits

updated Dec 19, 2025

See the code

README

 ____            _____            ____        _ _     _           ____  _   _ ____  
|  _ \ ___  __ _| ____|_  ___ __ | __ ) _   _(_) | __| | ___ _ __|  _ \| | | |  _ \ 
| |_) / _ \/ _` |  _| \ \/ / '_ \|  _ \| | | | | |/ _` |/ _ \ '__| |_) | |_| | |_) |
|  _ <  __/ (_| | |___ >  <| |_) | |_) | |_| | | | (_| |  __/ |  |  __/|  _  |  __/ 
|_| \_\___|\__, |_____/_/\_\ .__/|____/ \__,_|_|_|\__,_|\___|_|  |_|   |_| |_|_|    
           |___/           |_|                                                      

human-readable regular expressions for PHP

release release phpunit release release

PHP port of regexpbuilderjs

RegExpBuilder integrates regular expressions into the programming language, thereby making them easy to read and maintain. Regular Expressions are created by using chained methods and variables such as arrays or strings.

Installation

composer req gherkins/regexpbuilderphp

Or download the appropriate release and require RegExpBuilder.php and RegExp.php from /src.

Documentation

https://github.com/gherkins/regexpbuilderphp/wiki

Examples

use Gherkins\RegExpBuilderPHP;
$builder = new RegExpBuilder();

Validation

$regExp = $builder
    ->startOfInput()
    ->exactly(4)->digits()
    ->then("_")
    ->exactly(2)->digits()
    ->then("_")
    ->min(3)->max(10)->letters()
    ->then(".")
    ->anyOf(array("png", "jpg", "gif"))
    ->endOfInput()
    ->getRegExp();

//true
$regExp->matches("2020_10_hund.jpg");
$regExp->matches("2030_11_katze.png");
$regExp->matches("4000_99_maus.gif");

//false
$regExp->matches("123_00_nein.gif");
$regExp->matches("4000_0_nein.pdf");
$regExp->matches("201505_nein.jpg");
$regExp = $builder
    ->multiLine()
    ->globalMatch()
    ->min(1)->max(10)->anythingBut(" ")
    ->anyOf(array(".pdf", ".doc"))
    ->getRegExp();

$text = 'Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr,
sed diam nonumy SomeFile.pdf eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore
magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua. At vero eos et accusam
et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. doc_04.pdf Stet clita kasd File.doc.'

$matches = $regExp->findIn($text);

//true
($matches[0] === "SomeFile.pdf");
($matches[1] === "doc_04.pdf");
($matches[2] === "File.doc");

Replace

$regExp = $builder
    ->min(1)
    ->max(10)
    ->digits()
    ->getRegExp();

$text = "98 bottles of beer on the wall";

$text = $regExp->replace(
    $text,
    function ($match) {
        return (int)$match + 1;
    }
);

//true
("99 bottles of beer on the wall" === $text);

Validation with multiple patterns

$a = $builder
    ->startOfInput()
    ->exactly(3)->digits()
    ->anyOf(array(".pdf", ".doc"))
    ->endOfInput();

$b = $builder
    ->getNew()
    ->startOfInput()
    ->exactly(4)->letters()
    ->then(".jpg")
    ->endOfInput();

$regExp = $builder
    ->getNew()
    ->eitherFind($a)
    ->orFind($b)
    ->getRegExp();

//true
$regExp->matches("123.pdf");
$regExp->matches("456.doc");
$regExp->matches("bbbb.jpg");
$regExp->matches("aaaa.jpg");

//false
$regExp->matches("1234.pdf");
$regExp->matches("123.gif");
$regExp->matches("aaaaa.jpg");
$regExp->matches("456.docx");

Take a look at the tests for more examples

human-readable
php
regex
regular-expression
regular-expressions

gherkins/regexpbuilderphp

🦉 human-readable regular expressions

PHP

1,341

218 commits

updated Dec 19, 2025

See the code

README

 ____            _____            ____        _ _     _           ____  _   _ ____  
|  _ \ ___  __ _| ____|_  ___ __ | __ ) _   _(_) | __| | ___ _ __|  _ \| | | |  _ \ 
| |_) / _ \/ _` |  _| \ \/ / '_ \|  _ \| | | | | |/ _` |/ _ \ '__| |_) | |_| | |_) |
|  _ <  __/ (_| | |___ >  <| |_) | |_) | |_| | | | (_| |  __/ |  |  __/|  _  |  __/ 
|_| \_\___|\__, |_____/_/\_\ .__/|____/ \__,_|_|_|\__,_|\___|_|  |_|   |_| |_|_|    
           |___/           |_|                                                      

human-readable regular expressions for PHP

release release phpunit release release

PHP port of regexpbuilderjs

RegExpBuilder integrates regular expressions into the programming language, thereby making them easy to read and maintain. Regular Expressions are created by using chained methods and variables such as arrays or strings.

Installation

composer req gherkins/regexpbuilderphp

Or download the appropriate release and require RegExpBuilder.php and RegExp.php from /src.

Documentation

https://github.com/gherkins/regexpbuilderphp/wiki

Examples

use Gherkins\RegExpBuilderPHP;
$builder = new RegExpBuilder();

Validation

$regExp = $builder
    ->startOfInput()
    ->exactly(4)->digits()
    ->then("_")
    ->exactly(2)->digits()
    ->then("_")
    ->min(3)->max(10)->letters()
    ->then(".")
    ->anyOf(array("png", "jpg", "gif"))
    ->endOfInput()
    ->getRegExp();

//true
$regExp->matches("2020_10_hund.jpg");
$regExp->matches("2030_11_katze.png");
$regExp->matches("4000_99_maus.gif");

//false
$regExp->matches("123_00_nein.gif");
$regExp->matches("4000_0_nein.pdf");
$regExp->matches("201505_nein.jpg");
$regExp = $builder
    ->multiLine()
    ->globalMatch()
    ->min(1)->max(10)->anythingBut(" ")
    ->anyOf(array(".pdf", ".doc"))
    ->getRegExp();

$text = 'Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr,
sed diam nonumy SomeFile.pdf eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore
magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua. At vero eos et accusam
et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. doc_04.pdf Stet clita kasd File.doc.'

$matches = $regExp->findIn($text);

//true
($matches[0] === "SomeFile.pdf");
($matches[1] === "doc_04.pdf");
($matches[2] === "File.doc");

Replace

$regExp = $builder
    ->min(1)
    ->max(10)
    ->digits()
    ->getRegExp();

$text = "98 bottles of beer on the wall";

$text = $regExp->replace(
    $text,
    function ($match) {
        return (int)$match + 1;
    }
);

//true
("99 bottles of beer on the wall" === $text);

Validation with multiple patterns

$a = $builder
    ->startOfInput()
    ->exactly(3)->digits()
    ->anyOf(array(".pdf", ".doc"))
    ->endOfInput();

$b = $builder
    ->getNew()
    ->startOfInput()
    ->exactly(4)->letters()
    ->then(".jpg")
    ->endOfInput();

$regExp = $builder
    ->getNew()
    ->eitherFind($a)
    ->orFind($b)
    ->getRegExp();

//true
$regExp->matches("123.pdf");
$regExp->matches("456.doc");
$regExp->matches("bbbb.jpg");
$regExp->matches("aaaa.jpg");

//false
$regExp->matches("1234.pdf");
$regExp->matches("123.gif");
$regExp->matches("aaaaa.jpg");
$regExp->matches("456.docx");

Take a look at the tests for more examples

human-readable
php
regex
regular-expression
regular-expressions

Significant stargazers

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