🔍Regex Recipes
Extract Text Between Quotes
Extract content between double quotes with greedy vs lazy matching examples.
Pattern
"([^"]*)"Explanation
Captures text between double quotes. Use lazy quantifier (.*?) for greedy matching across multiple quoted strings.
Examples
Single quoted
Input
The "quick brown" fox
Output
Captures: quick brown
Multiple quotes
Input
"first" and "second"
Output
Captures: first, second
Empty quotes
Input
Empty ""
Output
Captures: (empty string)
No quotes
Input
Plain text
Output
No match
Code Examples
JavaScript
// Extract all quoted strings
const text = 'He said "hello" and she said "world"';
const quotedStrings = text.match(/"([^"]*)"/g)
.map(s => s.slice(1, -1)); // Remove quotes
// Result: ['hello', 'world']
// With capturing group
const matches = [...text.matchAll(/"([^"]*)"/g)];
const captured = matches.map(m => m[1]);Try it Now
💡 Tips
- Use [^"] to match anything except quotes
- For both single and double quotes: ["']([^"']*)["']
- Handle escaped quotes: "([^"\\]|\\.)*"
- Use capturing groups to get content without quotes
⚠️ Common Pitfalls
- Does not handle escaped quotes within strings
- Assumes double quotes only (not single quotes)
- Greedy matching can capture too much
- Does not handle nested quotes