---
title: "Regular Expressions Usage"
canonical: "https://docs.infoblox.com/space/netmri754/105944198/Regular%20Expressions%20Usage"
format: markdown
---
NetMRI uses regular expressions similar to those supported by Cisco, JavaScript and Unix programming languages. Regular expressions supported for table filtering consist of a sequence of special symbols, modifiers and normal characters. NetMRI interprets the following single characters and expressions as follows:

`^` Matches the beginning of the string

`$` Matches the end of the string

`.` Matches any single character

`[...]` A set of matching characters such as [aeiouA-Z]

`[^...]` A set of non-matching characters

`(...)` A sub-pattern to be modified or remembered

`(...|...)` A set of alternate sub-patterns

`\w` Matches any word character; same as [a-zA-Z0-9]

`\W` Matches any non-word character; same as [^a-zA-Z0-9_]

`\s` Matches any whitespace character; same as [ \t\n\r\f\v]

`\S` Matches any non-whitespace character; same as [^ \t\n\r\f\v]

`\d` Matches any digit; same as [0-9]

`\D` Matches any non-digit; same as [^0-9]

To match any of the special characters above, enter the backslash (**\**) escape character immediately before them. Avoid spurious or excessive matches. To match all IP addresses starting with an initial octet of 10, use `/10``\.``/` as the pattern, not` /10./` which matches 10., 100, 101, 102, etc. (remember, dot is a special symbol).

Examples:

`$Vendor like /Cis.*/`

`$Type like /.*Switch.*/`

`$IPAddress like /10\.*[/]16/`

> ⚠️ **Note**
> ⚠️ 
> ⚠️ A common mistake occurs by using the Unix wildcard syntax (*) instead of the regular expression syntax (.*) to match any sequence of characters.