| means “Match previous or next expression”.| is like an OR operator.- Either match the expression on the left or the expression on the right.
- Ordered, leftmost expression gets precedence.
- Multiple choices can be daisy-chained.
- Group alternation expressions to keep them distinct.
/apple|orange/ matches “apple” and “orange”./abc|def|ghi|jkl/ matches “abc”, “def”, “ghi” and “jkl”./apple(juice|sauce)/ is not the same as /applejuice|sauce/./w(eilie)rd matches “weird” and “wierd”./(AA|BB|CC){4}/ matches “AABBAACC” and “CCCCBBBB”./w(ei|ie)rd/ matchs “wierd” or “wierd”/apple(juice|sauce)/ matches both “applejuice” and “applesauce”(AA|BB|CC){4} matches “AABBBBAA”