Here’s a post taken from stackOverflow
^ only means “not the following” when inside and at the start of []
, so [^...]
.
When it’s inside [] but not at the start, it means the actual ^ character.
When it’s escaped (\^
), it also means the actual ^ character.
In all other cases it means start of the string / line (which one is language / setting dependent).
So in short:
[^abc] -> not a, b or c
[ab^cd] -> a, b, ^ (character), c or d
\^ -> a ^ character
Anywhere else -> start of string / line.
So ^[b-d]t$
means:
Start of line
b/c/d character
t character
End of line