Regular Expression generator

Last modified: April 3, 2025

The Regular Expression generator generates data based on a regular expression. In the Fill settings section, you can set up basic and custom settings.

Custom settings

Snippet: Insert a snippet into the expression.

Counter: Insert a counter into the expression.

File: Insert a file into the expression.

Column: Insert a column into the expression.

Generator: Insert a generator into the expression.

Syntax elements

Basic

Description	Usage	Example
ordinary chars	John	“John”
individual chars	[dB]	“d” or “B”
[star-end] range	[0-9]	“2” or “5”
[chars] character set	[a-z0-9]	“7” or “q”
[exclude chars] character set	[^B-E]	“A” or “D”
initial ] in char set	[]]	”]”
(regexp) grouping	(abc)*d	“abcabcd” or “d”
* zero or more	abc*	“abcccc” or “cb”
+1 or more	abc+	“abcccc” or “abc”
? include or not	abc?	“ab” or “abc”
{num} repeat	c{4}	“cccc”
{min,} at least min repeats	c{4,}	“cccc” or “cccccccccc”
{,max} not more than max repeats	c{,4}	“cc” or “cccc”
{min, max} repeat	c{3,4}	“ccc” or “cccc”
0	empty string
|alternatives	True|False	“True” or “False”
empty alternative	(|dark|light)gray	“darkgray” or “gray”
numeric counter	${counter([0-9]{4})} or ${counter(\d{4})}	0000, 0001, 0002, …, 9997, 9998, 9999
numeric counter decrement order	${counter([9876543210]{4})}	9999, 9998, 9997, …, 0002, 0001, 0000
char counter	${counter([A-Z]{2})} or ${counter(\C{2})}	AA, AB, AC, … ZX, ZY, ZZ
char counter decrement order	${counter([ZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA]{2})}	ZZ, ZY, ZX, …, AC, AB, AA
hex counter	${counter([0-9a-f]{5})} or ${counter(\h){5}}	00000, 00001, 00002, …, ffffd, ffffe, fffff
hex counter decrement order	${counter([FEDCBA9876543210]{5})}	FFFFF, FFFFE, FFFFD, …, 00002, 00001, 00000
custom IDs	(ID(${counter([1-9]{3})}))	ID111, ID112, ID113, …, ID997, ID998, ID999
loading a TXT file content from the default folder	$”FirstNamesMale.txt”	John or Alen or Glen
loading a TXT file content from a user folder	$”D:\folder_name\FirstNamesMale.txt”	John or Alen or Glen
loading a CSV file content from the default folder [csv_second_column]	$”USStates.csv[1]”	Ohio or Iowa or Texas
loading a CSV file content from a user folder [csv_first_column]	$”D:\folder_name\USStates.csv[0]”	OH or IA or TX
loading column content from the same table	$”[Gender]”	F or M
loading column content from other table	$”[HumanResources].[Employee].[Gender]”	F or M
loading column content from a query	$”[SELECT * FROM [HumanResources].[Employee] WHERE [OrganizationLevel] = 1].[Gender]”	F or M
loading column content from a query of other connection	$”[connection_name].[SELECT * FROM [HumanResources].[Employee] WHERE [OrganizationLevel] = 1].[Gender]”	F or M
generating values according to their weight ration	Ohio$”10”|Iowa$”50”|Texas$”90”	Texas or Texas or Texas or Iowa or Texas
generating values from a predefined generator	$”IPv4 Address”	10.0.0.4 or 192.168.1.2

Escapes

Description	Usage	Example
backslash	\	\
dollar sign	$	$
ordinary chars	{	{
right brace	}	}
left square bracket	[	[
right square bracket	]	]
left parenthesis	(	(
right parenthesis	)	)
alternation operator	|	|
asterisk	*	*
plus mark	+	+
question mark	\?	?
lowercase letter	\c	[a-z]
uppercase letter	\C	[A-Z]
upper- or lowercase letter	\A	[a-zA-Z]
upper- or lowercase letter or underscore or digit	\w	[a-zA-Z_0-9]
all ASCII printable characters	\W	[-~]
digit	\d	[0-9]
digit without a zero	\D	[1-9]
bit	\b	[0-1]
hexadecimal character	\h	[0-9a-f]
HEXADECIMAL charcater	\H	[0-9A-F]
carriage return	\r
line feed	\l
tab character	\t
space characters	\s	[\t]
unicode (UTF-16) escapes	\u20ac	€
hexadecimal escapes	\xA3	£

Additionally, you can use Snippet to add the following snippets:

Snippets	Description
[a-z]	lowercase letter
[A-Z]	uppercase letter
[0-9]	digit
\D	digit without a zero
\h	hexadeciaml character
[ ]	space
\w	upper- or lowercase letter or underscore or digit
\W	all ASCII printable characters
|	alternative
()	group
*	0 or more repeats
+	1 or more repeats
{5}	5 repeats
{5,9}	5 to 9 repeats
{5,}	5 or more repeats