Regex Greedy vs Lazy Quantifiers – Compare .* and .*?

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See how a greedy quantifier can span multiple delimiters and how a lazy quantifier stops at the earliest possible match.

20 chars · 1 line

8 chars · 1 line

Pattern did not match the inputFlags: g

Regex quantifier behavior

How to compare greedy and lazy regex quantifiers

Greedy quantifiers consume as much text as possible while still allowing the pattern to succeed. That is why <.*> spans from the first < to the final > in the sample. Adding ? makes the quantifier lazy so Match All stops at the earliest closing delimiter each time. This tool is free to use. No account or payment is required.

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What you can do here

  • Greedy/lazy comparison
  • Match All output
  • Quantifier debugging
  • JavaScript RegExp semantics
  • Local sample testing
  • Browser-local processing

Steps

  1. Run Match All with the greedy quantifier against an input containing more than one possible endpoint.
  2. Add ? after the quantifier, such as .*?, when the earliest endpoint is the desired one.
  3. Retest nested or malformed input before relying on regex for structured markup parsing.

Lazy means shortest successful match, not a different wildcard

The dot still has the same character semantics. The extra ? changes how the quantifier expands while the engine searches for a successful match.

Greedy and lazy example

The greedy form spans all tags; the lazy form stops at each nearest >.

Greedy pattern

<.*>

Lazy pattern

<.*?>

Common questions

Frequently asked questions

What makes a quantifier lazy in JavaScript?

Place ? after the quantifier, for example *?, +?, ??, or {m,n}?.

Is lazy always better than greedy?

No. Choose the form whose stopping behavior matches the data and test representative edge cases.

Should regex parse arbitrary HTML?

For general HTML parsing, a parser is usually more appropriate. This example is about quantifier behavior with simple delimiters.

Recommended next steps

Regex Star Matches Empty StringUse + instead of * when at least one occurrence is required.Regex Dot Does Not Match NewlineUse dotAll when . must span line terminators.Regex Matcher Online – Find All MatchesInspect match indexes and capture groups after the pattern compiles.

Debugging a specific Regex issue? Browse Regex troubleshooting.