Regular Expression Feature Comparisons

This provides a comparison of features between various regular expression engines.

Table of Contents

• Languages
• Features
• Engines

Support Table

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Table 1 of 2

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	Perl	PCRE	Boost.Regex	.NET	Oniguruma	Hyperscan	ICU
Flags	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Anchors	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Buffer Boundaries	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Word Boundaries	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Text Segment Boundaries	❌	❌	❌	❌	✔	❌	❌
Continuation Escape	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	❌	✔
Alternatives	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Wildcard	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Character Classes	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Posix Character Classes	✔	✔	✔	❌	✔	✔	✔
Negated Posix Character Classes	✔	✔	❌	❌	✔	✔	❌
Collating Elements	❌	❌	✔	❌	❌	❌	❌
Equivalence Classes	❌	❌	✔	❌	❌	❌	❌
Character Class Escapes	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Line Endings Escape	✔	✔	✔	❌	✔	❌	✔
Character Property Escapes	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Character Class Nested Set	✔	❌	❌	❌	✔	❌	✔
Character Class Intersection	✔	❌	❌	❌	✔	❌	✔
Character Class Union	✔	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌
Character Class Subtraction	✔	❌	❌	✔	✔	❌	✔
Character Class Symmetric Difference	✔	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌
Character Class Complement	✔	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌
Quoted Characters	✔	✔	✔	❌	❌	❌	✔
Quantifiers	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Lazy Quantifiers	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Possessive Quantifiers	✔	✔	✔	❌	✔	❌	✔
Capturing Groups	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Named Capturing Groups	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Non-Capturing Groups	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Backreferences	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	❌	✔
Comments	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Line Comments	✔	✔	❌	✔	❌	❌	✔
Modifiers	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Branch Reset	✔	✔	✔	❌	❌	❌	❌
Lookahead	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	❌	✔
Lookbehind	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	❌	✔
Non-Backtracking Expressions	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	❌	✔
Recursion	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	❌	❌
Conditional Expressions	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	❌	❌
Subroutines	✔	✔	✔	❌	✔	❌	❌
Callouts	✔	✔	❌	❌	✔	❌	❌
Backtracking Control Verbs	✔	✔	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌

Table 2 of 2

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	Glib/GRegex	ECMAScript
Flags	✔	✔
Anchors	✔	✔
Buffer Boundaries	✔	❌
Word Boundaries	✔	✔
Text Segment Boundaries	❌	❌
Continuation Escape	✔	❌
Alternatives	✔	✔
Wildcard	✔	✔
Character Classes	✔	✔
Posix Character Classes	✔	❌
Negated Posix Character Classes	✔	❌
Collating Elements	❌	❌
Equivalence Classes	❌	❌
Character Class Escapes	✔	✔
Line Endings Escape	✔	❌
Character Property Escapes	✔	✔
Character Class Nested Set	❌	❌
Character Class Intersection	❌	❌
Character Class Union	❌	❌
Character Class Subtraction	❌	❌
Character Class Symmetric Difference	❌	❌
Character Class Complement	❌	❌
Quoted Characters	✔	❌
Quantifiers	✔	✔
Lazy Quantifiers	✔	✔
Possessive Quantifiers	✔	❌
Capturing Groups	✔	✔
Named Capturing Groups	✔	✔
Non-Capturing Groups	✔	✔
Backreferences	✔	✔
Comments	✔	❌
Line Comments	✔	❌
Modifiers	✔	❌
Branch Reset	❌	❌
Lookahead	✔	✔
Lookbehind	✔	✔
Non-Backtracking Expressions	✔	❌
Recursion	✔	❌
Conditional Expressions	✔	❌
Subroutines	✔	❌
Callouts	❌	❌
Backtracking Control Verbs	❌	❌