| any single character except newline | . (dot) |
| zero or more repeats | * |
| one or more repeats | + |
| any character in the set | [...] |
| any character not in the set | [^...] |
| quote a special character c | \c |
| alternative ("or") | | |
| grouping | (...) |
| if you do not remember whether the author's name has two o's | Moo?re |
| if you only remember a part of the author's name | .*gabe.* or simply gabe |
| if you search for articles of different authors at the same time | Rugaber|DeBaud |
| if you search for articles two authors wrote together | (Rugaber.*DeBaud) | (DeBaud.*Rugaber) |
| if you search for articles of Rugaber with DeBaud or Moore | (Rugaber .* (Moore | DeBaud)) | ((Moore | DeBaud) .* Rugaber) |