| <!DOCTYPE html SYSTEM "about:legacy-compat"> |
| <html lang="en"> |
| <head> |
| <META http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-15"> |
| <title>Apache JMeter |
| - |
| User's Manual: Regular Expressions</title> |
| <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> |
| <link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Merriweather:400normal" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"> |
| <link href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/font-awesome/4.6.1/css/font-awesome.min.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"> |
| <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../css/new-style.css"> |
| <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" href="../images/apple-touch-icon.png"> |
| <link rel="icon" href="../images/favicon.png"> |
| <meta name="msapplication-TileColor" content="#ffffff"> |
| <meta name="msapplication-TileImage" content="../images/mstile-144x144.png"> |
| <meta name="theme-color" content="#ffffff"> |
| </head> |
| <body role="document"> |
| <a href="#content" class="hidden">Main content</a> |
| <div class="header"> |
| <!-- |
| APACHE LOGO |
| --> |
| <div> |
| <a href="https://www.apache.org"><img title="Apache Software Foundation" class="asf-logo logo" src="../images/asf-logo.svg" alt="Logo ASF"></a> |
| </div> |
| <!-- |
| PROJECT LOGO |
| --> |
| <div> |
| <a href="https://jmeter.apache.org/"><img class="logo" src="../images/logo.svg" alt="Apache JMeter"></a> |
| </div> |
| <div class="banner"> |
| <a href="https://www.apache.org/events/current-event.html"><img src="https://www.apache.org/events/current-event-234x60.png" alt="Current Apache event teaser"></a> |
| <div class="clear"></div> |
| </div> |
| </div> |
| <div class="nav"> |
| <ul class="menu"> |
| <li onClick="return true"> |
| <div class="menu-title">About</div> |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <a href="../index.html">Overview</a> |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| <a href="https://www.apache.org/licenses/">License</a> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| <ul class="menu"> |
| <li onClick="return true"> |
| <div class="menu-title">Download</div> |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <a href="../download_jmeter.cgi">Download Releases</a> |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| <a href="../changes.html">Release Notes</a> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| <ul class="menu"> |
| <li onClick="return true"> |
| <div class="menu-title">Documentation</div> |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <a href="../usermanual/get-started.html">Get Started</a> |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| <a href="../usermanual/index.html">User Manual</a> |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| <a href="../usermanual/best-practices.html">Best Practices</a> |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| <a href="../usermanual/component_reference.html">Component Reference</a> |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| <a href="../usermanual/functions.html">Functions Reference</a> |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| <a href="../usermanual/properties_reference.html">Properties Reference</a> |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| <a href="../changes_history.html">Change History</a> |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| <a href="../api/index.html">Javadocs</a> |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| <a href="https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/JMETER/Home">JMeter Wiki</a> |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| <a href="https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/JMETER/JMeterFAQ">FAQ (Wiki)</a> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| <ul class="menu"> |
| <li onClick="return true"> |
| <div class="menu-title">Tutorials</div> |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <a href="../usermanual/jmeter_distributed_testing_step_by_step.html">Distributed Testing</a> |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| <a href="../usermanual/jmeter_proxy_step_by_step.html">Recording Tests</a> |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| <a href="../usermanual/junitsampler_tutorial.html">JUnit Sampler</a> |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| <a href="../usermanual/jmeter_accesslog_sampler_step_by_step.html">Access Log Sampler</a> |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| <a href="../usermanual/jmeter_tutorial.html">Extending JMeter</a> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| <ul class="menu"> |
| <li onClick="return true"> |
| <div class="menu-title">Community</div> |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <a href="../issues.html">Issue Tracking</a> |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| <a href="../security.html">Security</a> |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| <a href="../mail.html">Mailing Lists</a> |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| <a href="../svnindex.html">Source Repositories</a> |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| <a href="../building.html">Building and Contributing</a> |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| <a href="https://projects.apache.org/project.html?jmeter">Project info at Apache</a> |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| <a href="https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/JMETER/JMeterCommitters">Contributors</a> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| <ul class="menu"> |
| <li onClick="return true"> |
| <div class="menu-title">Foundation</div> |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| <a href="https://www.apache.org/">The Apache Software Foundation (ASF)</a> |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| <a href="https://www.apache.org/foundation/getinvolved.html">Get Involved in the ASF</a> |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| <a href="https://www.apache.org/foundation/sponsorship.html">Sponsorship</a> |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| <a href="https://www.apache.org/foundation/thanks.html">Thanks</a> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </div> |
| <div class="main" id="content"> |
| <div class="social-media"> |
| <ul class="social-media-links"> |
| <li class="twitter"> |
| <a href="https://twitter.com/ApacheJMeter" title="Follow us on Twitter"><i class="fa fa-twitter" aria-hidden="true"></i>Twitter</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="github"> |
| <a href="https://github.com/apache/jmeter" title="Fork us on github"><i class="fa fa-github" aria-hidden="true"></i>github</a> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </div> |
| <ul class="pagelinks"> |
| <li> |
| <a href="functions.html">< Prev</a> |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| <a href="../index.html">Index</a> |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| <a href="hints_and_tips.html">Next ></a> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| <div class="section"> |
| <h1 id="regex"> |
| 21. Regular Expressions<a class="sectionlink" href="#regex" title="Link to here">¶</a> |
| </h1> |
| |
| <div class="subsection"> |
| <h2 id="overview"> |
| 21.1 Overview<a class="sectionlink" href="#overview" title="Link to here">¶</a> |
| </h2> |
| |
| <p> |
| JMeter includes the pattern matching software <a href="http://attic.apache.org/projects/jakarta-oro.html">Apache Jakarta ORO</a> |
| |
| <br> |
| There is some documentation for this on the Jakarta web-site, for example |
| <a href="http://archimedes.fas.harvard.edu/scrapbook/jakarta-oro-2.0.6/docs/api/org/apache/oro/text/regex/package-summary.html"> |
| a summary of the pattern matching characters</a> |
| |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| There is also documentation on an older incarnation of the product at |
| <a href="http://www.savarese.org/oro/docs/OROMatcher/index.html">OROMatcher User's guide</a>, which might prove useful. |
| |
| </p> |
| |
| <div class="clear"></div> |
| <div class="note"> |
| With JMeter version 5.5 the Regex implementation can be switched from Oro to the JDK based one by setting |
| the JMeter property <span class="code">jmeter.regex.engine</span> to some value different than <span class="code">oro</span>. |
| </div> |
| <div class="clear"></div> |
| |
| <p> |
| The pattern matching is very similar to the pattern matching in Perl. |
| A full installation of Perl will include plenty of documentation on regular expressions - look for <span class="code">perlrequick</span>, |
| <span class="code">perlretut</span>, <span class="code">perlre</span> and <span class="code">perlreref</span>. |
| |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| It is worth stressing the difference between "<em>contains</em>" and "<em>matches</em>", as used on the Response Assertion test element: |
| |
| </p> |
| |
| <dl> |
| |
| <dt> |
| "<em>contains</em>" |
| </dt> |
| <dd> |
| means that the regular expression matched at least some part of the target, |
| so '<span class="code">alphabet</span>' "<em>contains</em>" '<span class="code">ph.b.</span>' because the regular expression matches the substring '<span class="code">phabe</span>'. |
| |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt> |
| "<em>matches</em>" |
| </dt> |
| <dd> |
| means that the regular expression matched the whole target. |
| So '<span class="code">alphabet</span>' is "<em>matched</em>" by '<span class="code">al.*t</span>'. |
| |
| </dd> |
| |
| </dl> |
| |
| <p> |
| In this case, it is equivalent to wrapping the regular expression in <span class="code">^</span> and <span class="code">$</span>, viz '<span class="code">^al.*t$</span>'. |
| |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| However, this is not always the case. |
| For example, the regular expression '<span class="code">alp|.lp.*</span>' is "<em>contained</em>" in '<span class="code">alphabet</span>', |
| but does not "<em>match</em>" '<span class="code">alphabet</span>'. |
| |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| Why? Because when the pattern matcher finds the sequence '<span class="code">alp</span>' in '<span class="code">alphabet</span>', it stops trying any other |
| combinations - and '<span class="code">alp</span>' is not the same as '<span class="code">alphabet</span>', as it does not include '<span class="code">habet</span>'. |
| |
| </p> |
| |
| <div class="clear"></div> |
| <div class="note"> |
| Unlike Perl, there is no need to (i.e. do not) enclose the regular expression in <span class="code">//</span>. |
| |
| </div> |
| <div class="clear"></div> |
| |
| <p> |
| So how does one use the modifiers <span class="code">ismx</span> etc. if there is no trailing <span class="code">/</span>? |
| The solution is to use <i>extended regular expressions</i>, i.e. <span class="code">/abc/i</span> becomes <span class="code">(?i)abc</span>. |
| See also <a href="#placement">Placement of modifiers</a> below. |
| |
| </p> |
| |
| </div> |
| |
| <div class="subsection"> |
| <h2 id="examples"> |
| 21.2 Examples<a class="sectionlink" href="#examples" title="Link to here">¶</a> |
| </h2> |
| |
| <h3>Extract single string</h3> |
| |
| <p> |
| Suppose you want to match the following portion of a web-page: |
| |
| <br> |
| |
| <span class="code">name="file" value="readme.txt"></span> |
| |
| <br> |
| and you want to extract <span class="code">readme.txt</span>. |
| |
| <br> |
| A suitable regular expression would be: |
| |
| <br> |
| |
| <span class="code">name="file" value="(.+?)"></span> |
| |
| <p> |
| The special characters above are: |
| </p> |
| |
| <dl> |
| |
| <dt> |
| <span class="code">(</span> and <span class="code">)</span> |
| </dt> |
| <dd>these enclose the portion of the match string to be returned</dd> |
| |
| <dt> |
| <span class="code">.</span> |
| </dt> |
| <dd>match any character</dd> |
| |
| <dt> |
| <span class="code">+</span> |
| </dt> |
| <dd>one or more times</dd> |
| |
| <dt> |
| <span class="code">?</span> |
| </dt> |
| <dd>don't be greedy, i.e. stop when first match succeeds</dd> |
| |
| </dl> |
| |
| <p> |
| Note: without the <span class="code">?</span>, the <span class="code">.+</span> would continue past the first <span class="code">"></span> |
| until it found the last possible <span class="code">"></span> - which is probably not what was intended. |
| |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| Note: although the above expression works, it's more efficient to use the following expression: |
| |
| <br> |
| |
| <span class="code">name="file" value="([^"]+)"></span> |
| where |
| <br> |
| |
| <span class="code">[^"]</span> - means match anything except <span class="code">"</span> |
| <br> |
| In this case, the matching engine can stop looking as soon as it sees the first <span class="code">"</span>, |
| whereas in the previous case the engine has to check that it has found <span class="code">"></span> rather than say <span class="code">" ></span>. |
| |
| </p> |
| |
| <h3>Extract multiple strings</h3> |
| |
| <p> |
| Suppose you want to match the following portion of a web-page: |
| <br> |
| |
| <span class="code">name="file.name" value="readme.txt"</span> |
| and you want to extract both <span class="code">file.name</span> and <span class="code">readme.txt</span>. |
| |
| <br> |
| A suitable regular expression would be: |
| |
| <br> |
| |
| <span class="code">name="([^"]+)" value="([^"]+)"</span> |
| |
| <br> |
| This would create 2 groups, which could be used in the JMeter Regular Expression Extractor template as <span class="code">$1$</span> and <span class="code">$2$</span>. |
| |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| The JMeter Regex Extractor saves the values of the groups in additional variables. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| For example, assume: |
| </p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| |
| <li> |
| Reference Name: <span class="code">MYREF</span> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| Regex: <span class="code">name="(.+?)" value="(.+?)"</span> |
| </li> |
| |
| <li> |
| Template: <span class="code">$1$$2$</span> |
| </li> |
| |
| </ul> |
| |
| <div class="clear"></div> |
| <div class="note"> |
| Do not enclose the regular expression in <span class="code">/ /</span> |
| </div> |
| <div class="clear"></div> |
| |
| <p> |
| The following variables would be set: |
| </p> |
| |
| <dl> |
| |
| <dt> |
| <span class="code">MYREF</span> |
| </dt> |
| <dd> |
| <span class="code">file.namereadme.txt</span> |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt> |
| <span class="code">MYREF_g0</span> |
| </dt> |
| <dd> |
| <span class="code">name="file.name" value="readme.txt"</span> |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt> |
| <span class="code">MYREF_g1</span> |
| </dt> |
| <dd> |
| <span class="code">file.name</span> |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt> |
| <span class="code">MYREF_g2</span> |
| </dt> |
| <dd> |
| <span class="code">readme.txt</span> |
| </dd> |
| |
| </dl> |
| These variables can be referred to later on in the JMeter test plan, as <span class="code">${MYREF}</span>, <span class="code">${MYREF_g1}</span> etc. |
| |
| </p> |
| |
| </div> |
| |
| <div class="subsection"> |
| <h2 id="line_mode"> |
| 21.3 Line mode<a class="sectionlink" href="#line_mode" title="Link to here">¶</a> |
| </h2> |
| |
| <p>The pattern matching behaves in various slightly different ways, |
| depending on the setting of the multi-line and single-line modifiers. |
| Note that the single-line and multi-line operators have nothing to do with each other; |
| they can be specified independently. |
| </p> |
| |
| <h3>Single-line mode</h3> |
| |
| <p> |
| Single-line mode only affects how the '<span class="code">.</span>' meta-character is interpreted. |
| |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| Default behaviour is that '<span class="code">.</span>' matches any character except newline. |
| In single-line mode, '<span class="code">.</span>' also matches newline. |
| |
| </p> |
| |
| <h3>Multi-line mode</h3> |
| |
| <p> |
| Multi-line mode only affects how the meta-characters '<span class="code">^</span>' and '<span class="code">$</span>' are interpreted. |
| |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| Default behaviour is that '<span class="code">^</span>' and '<span class="code">$</span>' only match at the very beginning and end of the string. |
| When Multi-line mode is used, the '<span class="code">^</span>' metacharacter matches at the beginning of every line, |
| and the '<span class="code">$</span>' metacharacter matches at the end of every line. |
| </p> |
| |
| </div> |
| |
| <div class="subsection"> |
| <h2 id="meta_chars"> |
| 21.4 Meta characters<a class="sectionlink" href="#meta_chars" title="Link to here">¶</a> |
| </h2> |
| |
| <p> |
| Regular expressions use certain characters as meta characters - these characters have a special meaning to the RE engine. |
| Such characters must be escaped by preceding them with <span class="code">\</span> (backslash) in order to treat them as ordinary characters. |
| Here is a list of the meta characters and their meaning (please check the ORO documentation if in doubt). |
| |
| </p> |
| |
| <dl> |
| |
| <dt> |
| <span class="code">(</span> and <span class="code">)</span> |
| </dt> |
| <dd>grouping</dd> |
| |
| <dt> |
| <span class="code">[</span> and <span class="code">]</span> |
| </dt> |
| <dd>character classes</dd> |
| |
| <dt> |
| <span class="code">{</span> and <span class="code">}</span> |
| </dt> |
| <dd>repetition</dd> |
| |
| <dt> |
| <span class="code">*</span>, <span class="code">+</span> and <span class="code">?</span> |
| </dt> |
| <dd>repetition</dd> |
| |
| <dt> |
| <span class="code">.</span> |
| </dt> |
| <dd>wild-card character</dd> |
| |
| <dt> |
| <span class="code">\</span> |
| </dt> |
| <dd>escape character</dd> |
| |
| <dt> |
| <span class="code">|</span> |
| </dt> |
| <dd>alternatives</dd> |
| |
| <dt> |
| <span class="code">^</span> and <span class="code">$</span> |
| </dt> |
| <dd>start and end of string or line</dd> |
| |
| </dl> |
| |
| <div class="clear"></div> |
| <div class="note"> |
| Please note that ORO does not support the <span class="code">\Q</span> and <span class="code">\E</span> meta-characters. |
| [In other RE engines, these can be used to quote a portion of an RE so that the meta-characters stand for themselves.] |
| You can use function to do the equivalent, see <a href="functions.html#__escapeOroRegexpChars">${__escapeOroRegexpChars(valueToEscape)}</a>. |
| |
| </div> |
| <div class="clear"></div> |
| |
| <p> |
| The following Perl5 extended regular expressions are supported by ORO. |
| |
| |
| <dl> |
| |
| <dt> |
| <span class="code">(?#text)</span> |
| </dt> |
| |
| <dd>An embedded comment causing text to be ignored.</dd> |
| |
| <dt> |
| <span class="code">(?:regexp)</span> |
| </dt> |
| |
| <dd> |
| Groups things like "<span class="code">()</span>" but doesn't cause the group match to be saved. |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt> |
| <span class="code">(?=regexp)</span> |
| </dt> |
| |
| <dd> |
| A zero-width positive lookahead assertion. For example, <span class="code">\w+(?=\s)</span> matches a word followed by whitespace, without including whitespace in the MatchResult. |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt> |
| <span class="code">(?!regexp)</span> |
| </dt> |
| |
| <dd> |
| A zero-width negative lookahead assertion. For example <span class="code">foo(?!bar)</span> matches any occurrence of "<span class="code">foo</span>" that |
| isn't followed by "<span class="code">bar</span>". Remember that this is a zero-width assertion, which means that <span class="code">a(?!b)d</span> will |
| match <span class="code">ad</span> because <span class="code">a</span> is followed by a character that is not <span class="code">b</span> (the <span class="code">d</span>) and a <span class="code">d</span> |
| follows the zero-width assertion. |
| </dd> |
| |
| <dt> |
| <span class="code">(?imsx)</span> |
| </dt> |
| |
| <dd> |
| One or more embedded pattern-match modifiers. <span class="code">i</span> enables case insensitivity, <span class="code">m</span> enables multiline treatment |
| of the input, <span class="code">s</span> enables single line treatment of the input, and <span class="code">x</span> enables extended whitespace comments. |
| </dd> |
| |
| </dl> |
| |
| <b>Note that <span class="code">(?<=regexp)</span> - lookbehind - is not supported.</b> |
| |
| </p> |
| |
| </div> |
| |
| <div class="subsection"> |
| <h2 id="placement"> |
| 21.5 Placement of modifiers<a class="sectionlink" href="#placement" title="Link to here">¶</a> |
| </h2> |
| |
| <p> |
| Modifiers can be placed anywhere in the regex, and apply from that point onwards. |
| [A bug in ORO means that they cannot be used at the very end of the regex. |
| However they would have no effect there anyway.] |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| The single-line <span class="code">(?s)</span> and multi-line <span class="code">(?m)</span> modifiers are normally placed at the start of the regex. |
| |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| The ignore-case modifier <span class="code">(?i)</span> may be usefully applied to just part of a regex, |
| for example: |
| </p> |
| |
| <pre class="source"> |
| Match ExAct case or (?i)ArBiTrARY(?-i) case |
| </pre> |
| would match <span class="code">Match ExAct case or arbitrary case</span> as well as <span class="code">Match ExAct case or ARBitrary case</span>, but not <span class="code">Match exact case or ArBiTrARY case</span>. |
| |
| </div> |
| |
| </div> |
| <div class="section"> |
| <h1 id="testing_expressions"> |
| 21.6 Testing Regular Expressions<a class="sectionlink" href="#testing_expressions" title="Link to here">¶</a> |
| </h1> |
| |
| <p> |
| Since JMeter 2.4, the listener <a href="component_reference.html#View_Results_Tree">View Results Tree</a> |
| include a RegExp Tester to test regular expressions directly on sampler response data. |
| |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| There is a <a href="http://www.regexplanet.com/advanced/java/index.html">Website</a> to test Java Regular expressions. |
| |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| Another approach is to use a simple test plan to test the regular expressions. |
| The Java Request sampler can be used to generate a sample, or the HTTP Sampler can be used to load a file. |
| Add a Debug Sampler and a Tree View Listener and changes to the regular expression can be tested quickly, |
| without needing to access any external servers. |
| </p> |
| |
| </div> |
| <ul class="pagelinks"> |
| <li> |
| <a href="functions.html">< Prev</a> |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| <a href="../index.html">Index</a> |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| <a href="hints_and_tips.html">Next ></a> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| <div class="share-links"> |
| Share this page: |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li class="fb"> |
| <a data-social-url="https://facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=" title="Share on facebook"><i class="fa fa-facebook" aria-hidden="true"></i>share</a> |
| </li> |
| <li class="twitter"> |
| <a data-social-url="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=" title="Tweet on twitter"><i class="fa fa-twitter" aria-hidden="true"></i>tweet</a> |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </div> |
| <a href="#top" id="topButton">Go to top</a> |
| </div> |
| <div class="footer"> |
| <div class="copyright"> |
| Copyright © |
| 1999 – |
| 2022 |
| , Apache Software Foundation |
| </div> |
| <div class="trademarks">Apache, Apache JMeter, JMeter, the Apache |
| feather, and the Apache JMeter logo are |
| trademarks of the |
| Apache Software Foundation. |
| </div> |
| </div> |
| <script>(function(){ |
| "use strict"; |
| // enable 'go to top' button functionality |
| document.addEventListener('scroll', function() { |
| if (document.body.scrollTop > 500 || document.documentElement.scrollTop > 500) { |
| document.getElementById("topButton").style.display = "block"; |
| } else { |
| document.getElementById("topButton").style.display = "none"; |
| } |
| }); |
| // fill in the current location into social links on this page. |
| var as = document.getElementsByTagName('a'); |
| var loc = document.location.href; |
| if (!loc.toLowerCase().startsWith('http')) { |
| return; |
| } |
| for (var i=0; i<as.length; i++) { |
| var href = as[i].getAttribute('data-social-url'); |
| if (href !== null) { |
| as[i].href = href + encodeURIComponent(loc); |
| } |
| } |
| })();</script> |
| </body> |
| </html> |
