---
title: "What the mean of different symbols like ^, $, * , + , ?, ., {},[] in Regular Expressions"  
description: "What the mean of different symbols like ^, $, * , + , ?, ., {},[] in Regular Expressions"  
author: "Andrew Deniel"  
published: 2013-06-08  
updated: 2020-09-19  
canonical: https://www.mindstick.com/interview/1762/what-the-mean-of-different-symbols-like-in-regular-expressions  
category: "asp.net"  
tags: ["asp.net"]  
reading_time: 2 minutes  

---

# What the mean of different symbols like ^, $, * , + , ?, ., {},[] in Regular Expressions

These symbols ^, $, * , + , ?, ., {},[] are very usefull like\
"^PCDS": Symbols ^ use to matches any string that starts with "PCDS" this can match "PCDS is an Infotech";"pcds$": Matches a string that ends in the substring "pcds" like "This is pcds";"^pcds$": Matches a string that starts and ends with "pcds" that could only be "pcds" itself\
"ab*": matches a string that has an a followed by zero or more b's ("a", "ab", "abbb", etc.);"ab+": same as *, but there's at least one b ("ab", "abbb", etc.);"ab?": there might be a b or not;"ab.": . matches any character like abd, abh, abt etc;"ab{2}": matches a string that has an a followed by exactly two b's ("abb");"ab{2,}": there are at least two b's ("abb", "abbbb", etc.);"ab{3,5}": from three to five b's ("abbb", "abbbb", or "abbbbb")."[a-z]": matches any char from a to z.

## Answers

### Answer by Andrew Deniel

These symbols ^, $, * , + , ?, ., {},[] are very usefull like\
"^PCDS": Symbols ^ use to matches any string that starts with "PCDS" this can match "PCDS is an Infotech";"pcds$": Matches a string that ends in the substring "pcds" like "This is pcds";"^pcds$": Matches a string that starts and ends with "pcds" that could only be "pcds" itself\
"ab*": matches a string that has an a followed by zero or more b's ("a", "ab", "abbb", etc.);"ab+": same as *, but there's at least one b ("ab", "abbb", etc.);"ab?": there might be a b or not;"ab.": . matches any character like abd, abh, abt etc;"ab{2}": matches a string that has an a followed by exactly two b's ("abb");"ab{2,}": there are at least two b's ("abb", "abbbb", etc.);"ab{3,5}": from three to five b's ("abbb", "abbbb", or "abbbbb")."[a-z]": matches any char from a to z.


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Original Source: https://www.mindstick.com/interview/1762/what-the-mean-of-different-symbols-like-in-regular-expressions

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