File Path (Windows) Regex Pattern

Live Regex Tester

Pattern Breakdown

Code Examples

const regex = /^[a-zA-Z]:\\(?:[^\\/:*?"<>|]+\\)*[^\\/:*?"<>|]*$/;
const test = "C:\Users\Documents\file.txt";
console.log(regex.test(test)); // true

// Extract matches
const matches = test.match(regex);
console.log(matches);

import re

pattern = r'^[a-zA-Z]:\\(?:[^\\/:*?"<>|]+\\)*[^\\/:*?"<>|]*$'
test = "C:\Users\Documents\file.txt"
match = re.search(pattern, test)
print(match)  # Found!

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "regexp"
)

func main() {
    re := regexp.MustCompile(`^[a-zA-Z]:\\(?:[^\\/:*?"<>|]+\\)*[^\\/:*?"<>|]*$`)
    fmt.Println(re.MatchString("C:\Users\Documents\file.txt")) // true
}

Common Use Cases

Match Examples

About the File Path (Windows) Regex

Validates Windows file paths with drive letter, backslash separators, and restrictions on invalid characters.

Regular expressions (regex) are powerful pattern matching tools used across virtually all programming languages. The file path (windows) pattern is classified as intermediate difficulty in the file & path category. It works in all major programming languages.

When using this regex, always consider edge cases and test thoroughly with real-world data. Use the interactive tester above to validate the pattern against your specific inputs before deploying to production.

More File & Path Patterns