With negative lookahead, regular expression can match something not contains specific pattern. This is answered and explained by Bart Kiers. Great explanation!

However, with Bart Kiers' answer, the lookahead part will test 1 to 4 characters ahead while matching any single character. We can avoid this and let the lookahead part check out the whole text, ensure there is no 'hede', and then the normal part (.*) can eat the whole text all at one time.

Here is the improved regex:

/^(?!.*?hede).*$/ 

Note the (*?) lazy quantifier in the negative lookahead part is optional, you can use (*) greedy quantifier instead, depending on your data: if 'hede' does present and in the beginning half of the text, the lazy quantifier can be faster; otherwise, the greedy quantifier be faster. However if 'hede' does not present, both would be equal slow.

Here is the demo code.

For more information about lookahead, please check out the great article: Mastering Lookahead and Lookbehind.

Also, please check out RegexGen.js, a JavaScript Regular Expression Generator that helps to construct complex regular expressions. With RegexGen.js, you can construct the regex in a more readable way:

var _ = regexGen; var regex = _( _.startOfLine(), _.anything().notContains( // match anything that not contains: _.anything().lazy(), 'hede' // zero or more chars that followed by 'hede', // i.e., anything contains 'hede' ), _.endOfLine() ); 

With negative lookahead, regular expression can match something not contains specific pattern. This is answered and explained by Bart Kiers. Great explanation!

However, with Bart Kiers' answer, the lookahead part will test 1 to 4 characters ahead while matching any single character. We can avoid this and let the lookahead part check out the whole text, ensure there is no 'hede', and then the normal part (.*) can eat the whole text all at one time.

Here is the improved regex:

/^(?!.*?hede).*$/ 

Note the (*?) lazy quantifier in the negative lookahead part is optional, you can use (*) greedy quantifier instead, depending on your data: if 'hede' does present and in the beginning half of the text, the lazy quantifier can be faster; otherwise, the greedy quantifier be faster. However if 'hede' does not present, both would be equal slow.

Here is the demo code.

For more information about lookahead, please check out the great article: Mastering Lookahead and Lookbehind.

Also, please check out RegexGen.js, a JavaScript Regular Expression Generator that helps to construct complex regular expressions. With RegexGen.js, you can construct the regex in a more readable way:

var _ = regexGen; var regex = _( _.startOfLine(), _.anything().notContains( // match anything that not contains: _.anything().lazy(), 'hede' // zero or more chars that followed by 'hede', // i.e., anything contains 'hede' ), _.endOfLine() );