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Asked: 2026-05-11T07:20:45+00:00

I need a regular expression that matches APA format references. I currently have this:

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I need a regular expression that matches APA format references.

I currently have this:

/([A-Z][a-zA-Z\-\:\'\s\´]{3,}\, ([a-zA-Z]\.[\s|,|.]| &?){1,}){1,}\(\d\d\d\d(, [A-Z][a-z\- ]*\d\d?|)\)\.[a-zA-Z\-\:\'\s]{3,}\.[a-zA-Z\-\s]+\,[ ]*\d\d(\(\S\))*,\d+.\d+./

It only catches 10 and is fragile as hell.

I only need journal articles – not books, not non-english articles.

Any tips on how to make this regex more manageable appreciated.

I built it using Rubular

This is the source data ( I know about the missing spaces and international character issues ):

Bre´dart, S., Valentine, T., Calder, A., & Gassi, L. (1995). An interactiveactivation model of face naming.Quarterly Journal of ExperimentalPsychology, 48(A),466–486.Bruce, V., & Young, A. (1986). Understanding face recognition.BritishJournal of Psychology, 77,305–327.Burton, A. M., & Bruce, V. (1992). I recognize your face but I can’tremember your name: A simple explanation?British Journal of Psy-chology, 83,45–60.Flude, B., Ellis, A., & Kay, J. (1990). Face processing and name retrievalin an anomic aphasic: Names are stored separately from semanticinformation about people.Brain and Cognition, 11,60–72.Gratton, G., Coles, M. G. H., Sirevaag, E. J., Eriksen, C. W., & Donchin,E. (1988). Pre- and poststimulus activation of response channels: Apsychophysiological analysis.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Hu-man Perception and Performance, 14,331–344.Hodges, J. R., & Greene, J. D. W. (1998). Knowing about people andnaming them: Can Alzheimer’s disease patients do one without theother?Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 51(A),121–134.Huynh, H., & Feldt, L. S. (1976). Estimation of the box correction fordegrees of freedom from sample data in the randomized block andsplit-plot designs.Journal of Educational Statistics, 1,69–82.Jasper, H. H. (1958). Report of the committee on methods of clinicalexamination in electroencephalography.Electroencephalography andClinical Neurophysiology, 10,370–375.Johnston, R. A., & Bruce, V. (1990). Lost properties? Retrieval differencesbetween name codes and semantic codes for familiar people.Psycho-logical Research 52,62–67.Kornhuber, H. H., & Deecke, L. (1965). Hirnpotentialaenderungen beiWillkuerbewegungen und passiven Bewegungen des Menschen: Be-reitschaftspotential und reafferente Potentiale [Brain potential changesfor voluntary and passive movements in humans: Readiness potentialand afferent potentials].Pfluegers Archiv fuer die Gesamte Physiologie,284,1–17.Kutas, M., & Donchin, E. (1974, November 8). Studies of squeezing:Handedness, responding hand, response force, and asymmetry of readi-ness potential.Science, 186,545–547.Kutas, M., & Donchin, E. (1980). Preparation to respond as manifested bymovement-related brain potentials.Brain Research, 202,95–115

Examples of book references that mess up mletterle’s answer

Lippold, O. C. J. (1967). Electromyography. In P. H. Venables & I. Martin (Eds.), A manual of psychophysiological methods (pp. 245–298). Amsterdam: North-Holland. Low, K. A., & Miller, J. (1999). The usefulness of partial information: Effects of go probability in the choice/nogo task. Psychophysiology, 36, 288–297.
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1 Answer

  1. This regex should do what you want

    ([^\.].*?[0-9])(?=\.|\Z)

    It uses positive look ahead to check for numbers followed by a period (or the end of the string), it excludes the periods from the captures. You can see the result here: http://www.rubular.com/regexes/6293

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