Here are some useful expressions: 1. match everything (including the character) before the character (e.g. hyphen): ^(.*?)\- 2. match everything (including the character) after the character (e.g. hyphen): \-(.*) 3. match everything (excluding the character) before the character (e.g. hyphen): .+?(?=\-) 4. match everything (excluding the character) after the character (e.g. hyphen): (?