Highlight Regex Matches

Wrap every match of a regex pattern in custom markers so they stand out visually in the text — showing you exactly where and what matched.

What Does This Tool Do?

Instead of extracting matches (like the Extract Regex Matches tool), this tool leaves your text intact but wraps every match in markers you specify. By default, matches are wrapped in [square brackets], but you can use any characters. A counter tells you how many matches were found.

Key Features

🖊️

Custom Markers

Choose any open/close delimiters to wrap around matches.

🔢

Match Count

Shows exactly how many matches were found in the text.

⚡

Real-time

Highlights all matches simultaneously in one pass.

⚙️

Regex Flags

Toggle case-insensitive matching.

How to Use This Tool

Paste your text into the Input box.
Enter your regex pattern.
Set the opening and closing markers (default: [ and ]).
Toggle case-insensitive matching if needed.
Click Highlight to wrap all matches.

How It Works

The pattern is compiled into a JavaScript RegExp with global (and optionally case-insensitive) flags. The text is passed through String.replace() with the regex, wrapping each match between your opening and closing markers. A counter tracks total matches.

Common Use Cases

💡 Debugging Patterns

Visually verify where your regex matches in real text before using it in code.

💡 Document Annotation

Mark important patterns or keywords in a document for review.

💡 Text Analysis

Highlight occurrences of specific patterns to study their distribution.

💡 Quality Checking

Find and highlight potential issues in text — like double spaces or formatting problems.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is this different from Extract Regex Matches?

Extract Regex Matches pulls out only the matching text. Highlight Regex keeps the full original text intact and wraps matches in markers — you see the context around each match.

Can I use the highlighted output in HTML?

Use HTML tags as markers — set opening to and closing to for proper HTML highlighting.

Related Tools

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