Regexp - match specific word allowing special characters

Question

I wanna make a regular expression to find specific word allowing special characters(\W). For example, if the word is replace then:

• replace matched.
• replace(, $replace, replace, replace matched because of allowing special characters.
• areplace, replacea not matched because of a.

It seems like I have to use (?=) operator, but I have no idea about how to use it.

Answer 1

You may use this regex with word breaks and allowing any non-word, non-whitespace on either side:

[^\w\s]*\breplace\b[^\w\s]*

RegEx Demo

RegEx Details:

• [^\w\s]0: Match optional 0+ non-word and non-whitespace character
• \b: Word boundary
• replace: match text replace
• \b: Word boundary
• [^\w\s]?: Match optional 0+ non-word and non-whitespace character