Regex to Extract JSON Keys

All patterns
Extraction13 chars · /g

Regex to Extract JSON Keys

A quick way to pull top-level and nested key tokens from JSON-like text during debugging or migration prep.

The expression

/"([^"]+)"\s*:/g

How to read it

\s matches any whitespace, including tabs and newlines.

A negated class [^ … ] matches anything except the listed characters.

gglobal — keep going after the first match instead of stopping

Find matches in your own text

no input
Try:

This expression is unanchored, so it finds every occurrence anywhere in the text. Highlighted runs are what a replace call would rewrite.

Examples, checked in your browser

4/4 verified

{"id": 1, "name": "Ada"}

Matches 2 times.

"status" : "ok"

Matches.

[1,2,3]

No match — this is the kind of input the pattern rejects.

no-json-here

No match — this is the kind of input the pattern rejects.

Use it in code

3 languages
JavaScript
const regex = /"([^"]+)"\s*:/g;
regex.test(input);
Python
import re
pattern = re.compile(r""([^"]+)"\s*:")
bool(pattern.search(input))
Go
re := regexp.MustCompile("\"([^\"]+)\"\\s*:")
matched := re.MatchString(input)

Other extraction patterns

4
GroupExtraction
Flags/g
Examples4
SafetyOK