Get started with Regex (in Excel)

There are three new functions coming to Excel for regular expressions (regex). Regex has been available in Excel before through VBA or Python, but this is the first time it's accessible as a native grid function.

So I thought it would be a good time to go over some basics of what a regular expression is and how to use them. This video is mostly just the first part - what kind of patterns are possible. I'll add another one shortly to show how you can use them for extracting, filtering, replacing, and rearranging.

You can get the file I used in the video here:

And I'll be adding a few more videos to this playlist over the next few days:

Useful links:

Sections
00:00 Introduction & resources
03:53 Basic patterns
08:45 Repetition and wildcards
18:52 Capture groups

[DingusBatus]

The more I see about REGEX the more interested I get in it. Very interesting and very powerful looking.😀
A very interesting breakdown on how it all works.😀

[iandobson]

Thanks for this. I've used REGEX in Google Sheets before but this is the first time I've had someone explaining what it all means. Very helpful.

[nemoyatpeace]

I've been wanting to learn REGEX for a long time. This was a GREAT start and looking forward to more!

[excelrobot]

Good stuff! That took some of the mystery out of RegEx for me. Looking forward to Extract/Replace!

[ExcelHechoFacil]

Paréntesis triangulares en HTML <" ">. "In my mind" This was great.

[Michael_Alaska]

Wow! And the hits just keep on coming.

[ExcelHechoFacil]

Muchas gracias Diarmuid por hacernos llegar la información. Estaba esperando este video. Mi Office 365 Excel aun no carga las nuevas funciones. Seguiré esperando.

[GregHingsbergen]

Thanks Dim. I've used regex some, but always got fuzzy once capture groups come into play. Very helpful.!

[daXcel]

Thanks for the video!. How this is different from flash fill?.

[AdiCristea]

"obviously because computer programmers are not human beings" 😃😃😃 Great video, thanks!

[littlecandyschannel]

Great video! thanks so much for the explanation...

May I ask how to extract the date using REGEX? The date in a string can be in different pattern and languages, for example 4-19-2024, 4/19/2024, 4.19.2024, 19.4.2024, 4月19曰2024年, Apr 19, 2024, 19th April 2024....
(Note: 月 means month, 日 means Day, and 年 means year)

[LiannaGerrish]

Awesome summary. What are some past eSports cases where regex would be useful? Maybe poker or tic tac toe.

[KO]

Thanks. Maybe someone can help me out here. Your example was password must contain 1 number (0-9) ... 1 uppercase letters ... 1 lowercase letters ... 1 non-alpha numeric number. What the hell is a non-alpha numeric number? Aren't all numbers numeric and how is this different that the first part (1 number).

[vernonmonter]

You need to turn the sound volume up for people who can't hear well.

[dimitrijesandic]

\w also matches _ (underscore). Nice video! Waiting for lookahead :)!