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Regex for Beginners

Regular expressions (regex) are a powerful tool for finding patterns in text. This guide explains regex basics in simple terms with examples for use in Imperium Guard triggers.

Basic Characters

Regular Characters

Regular letters and numbers match themselves: - hello — will find the word "hello" - 123 — will find digits "123"

Special Characters

Dot . — any character

  • c.t — will find "cat", "cot", "cut", "c5t"
  • a. — will find "ah", "at", "a1"

Backslash \ — escapes special meaning

  • \. — will find a dot
  • \? — will find a question mark
  • \\ — will find a backslash

Quantifiers (Repetition)

Asterisk * — 0 or more times

  • ha* — will find "h", "ha", "haa", "haaa"
  • spam* — will find "spa", "spam", "spamm"

Plus + — 1 or more times

  • ha+ — will find "ha", "haa", "haaa" (but NOT "h")
  • o+ — will find "o", "oo", "ooo"

Question Mark ? — 0 or 1 time (optional character)

  • hello!? — will find "hello" and "hello!"
  • https? — will find "http" and "https"

Curly Braces {n,m} — from n to m times

  • \d{3} — exactly 3 digits
  • \d{10,} — 10 or more digits (phone numbers)
  • a{2,4} — from 2 to 4 letter "a": "aa", "aaa", "aaaa"

Character Classes

Square Brackets [...] — one of the characters

  • [abc] — will find "a", "b" or "c"
  • [0-9] — any digit from 0 to 9
  • [a-z] — any lowercase letter
  • [a-zA-Z] — any English letter

Negation [^...] — any character EXCEPT listed

  • [^0-9] — any character except digits
  • [^a-zA-Z] — any character except English letters

Predefined Classes

  • \d — any digit (equivalent to [0-9])
  • \w — letter, digit or underscore
  • \s — space, tab, newline

Alternation and Grouping

Pipe | — choice (OR)

  • cat|dog — will find "cat" or "dog"
  • yes|no|maybe — will find any of the three options

Parentheses (...) — grouping

  • (spam)+ — will find "spam", "spamspam", "spamspamspam"
  • (ha)+ — will find "ha", "haha", "hahaha"
  • (hello|hi) world — will find "hello world" or "hi world"

Anchors (Positions)

Start ^ and End $

  • ^hello — "hello" at the beginning of text
  • bye$ — "bye" at the end of text
  • ^word$ — only "word", without other characters

Word Boundary \b

  • \bcat\b — will find the separate word "cat", but not "catch" or "scat"
  • \b\d+\b — will find separate numbers

Practical Examples for Guard

https?://.*

Will find any link starting with http:// or https://

How it works: - https? — "http" and optional "s" - :// — literally "://" - .* — any characters until the end

Mentions and Channels

@\w+

Will find @username, @channel

How it works: - @ — @ symbol - \w+ — one or more letters/digits

Phone Numbers

\d{10,}

Will find a sequence of 10+ digits

How it works: - \d — digit - {10,} — 10 or more times

Blocking Spam Words

(spam|ad|sell|buy)

Will find any of these words

How it works: - (...) — group - | — choice between options

Filter Repeated Characters

(.)\1{4,}

Will find 5+ identical characters in a row (aaaaa, 11111)

How it works: - (.) — any character (saved in a group) - \1 — repetition of the first group (same character) - {4,} — 4+ more times (total 5+)

Blocking E-mail

\w+@\w+\.\w+

Will find email addresses

How it works: - \w+ — letters/digits (name) - @ — @ symbol - \w+ — letters/digits (domain) - \. — dot (escaped) - \w+ — letters/digits (zone)

Caps Lock (Uppercase)

[A-Z]{5,}

Will find 5+ uppercase letters in a row

How it works: - [A-Z] — any uppercase letter - {5,} — 5 or more times

Emoji Spam

[\u{1F600}-\u{1F64F}]{5,}

Will find 5+ emojis in a row

Blocking Promo Codes

\b[A-Z0-9]{5,10}\b

Will find promo codes like ABC123, PROMO2024

How it works: - \b — word boundary - [A-Z0-9] — uppercase letters or digits - {5,10} — from 5 to 10 characters - \b — word boundary

Tips for Beginners

1. Start Simple

Don't try to write a complex expression right away. Start simple and gradually make it more complex.

2. Test Before Applying

Use sites like regex101.com for testing: 1. Select JavaScript mode 2. Enable the i flag (case insensitive) 3. Paste sample text 4. Check that the pattern works correctly

3. Use Notifications for Testing

Before applying ban/mute, create a trigger with "notify" action and check if it triggers correctly.

4. Escape Special Characters

If you need to find . (dot), ? (question), * (asterisk), use \., \?, \*

5. Don't Overcomplicate

If you can use "contains" condition instead of regex — use it. Regex is needed for complex patterns.

Common Mistakes

❌ Forgot to Escape Dot

google.com

Will find "googleXcom", "google com", "google1com"

✅ Correct

google\.com

Will find only "google.com"

❌ Wrong Grouping

hello|bye everyone

Will find "hello" or "bye everyone" (not what you want)

✅ Correct

(hello|bye) everyone

Will find "hello everyone" or "bye everyone"

❌ Forgot Word Boundaries

bot

Will find "bot", "robot", "bottom"

✅ Correct

\bbot\b

Will find only "bot"

Useful Resources

Ready-to-Use Patterns

Social Networks

(vk\.com|t\.me|instagram\.com|tiktok\.com)

Cryptocurrency

\b[13][a-km-zA-HJ-NP-Z1-9]{25,34}\b

Bitcoin addresses

IP Addresses

\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}

Domains

\b[a-z0-9-]+\.(com|net|org|io)\b

Advertising

(subscri|promo|discount|sell|buy|@\w+)

💡 Remember: In Imperium Guard, all regex are executed with the i flag (case insensitive), so SPAM, spam and SpAm will be matched the same way.