Understand regular expressions instantly with inline hover explanations in VS Code.
Regex Translator translates complex regex patterns into clear, natural language descriptions. Hover over any regular expression to see a detailed explanation, component breakdown, and generated matching examples.
Features
- Natural Language Explanations — Hover over a regex to get a human-readable description of what it matches
- Token Analysis — View detailed breakdown of each regex component
- Pattern Examples — Automatically generates example strings that match your pattern
- Multi-Language Support — Explanations available in English and Spanish
- Pattern Detection — Works with regex literals, string patterns, and standard regex function calls
Supported Languages
- JavaScript: Regex literals and RegExp, match, replace, split, search methods
- TypeScript: Full support for JavaScript regex patterns
- Python: re.compile, re.match, re.search, re.fullmatch, re.findall, re.sub
- Java: Pattern.compile and .matches methods
Usage
- Open a JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, or Java file
- Hover your cursor over a regular expression
- The explanation, token breakdown, and examples appear instantly
Example
const email = /^[a-zA-Z0-9._%+-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9.-]+\.[a-zA-Z]{2,}$/;
Hovering displays:
- Pattern description: matches standard email address format
- Tokens: character classes, quantifiers, anchors
- Example match: [email protected]
Configuration
Access Settings → Regex Translator to select your preferred language:
- English (default)
- Spanish
Requirements
- VS Code 1.120.0 or higher
Issues and Feedback
Report bugs or request features at github.com/pabloarrabalh/regex-translator
License
MIT