Regular Expressions Cookbook

6.9. Roman Numerals

Problem

You want to match Roman numerals such as IV, XIII, and MVIII.

Solution

Roman numerals without validation:

^[MDCLXVI]+$

Regex options: Case insensitive

Regex flavors: .NET, Java, JavaScript, PCRE, Perl, Python, Ruby

Modern Roman numerals, strict:

^(?=[MDCLXVI])M*(C[MD]|D?C{0,3})(X[CL]|L?X{0,3})(I[XV]|V?I{0,3})$

Regex options: Case insensitive

Regex flavors: .NET, Java, JavaScript, PCRE, Perl, Python, Ruby

Modern Roman numerals, flexible:

^(?=[MDCLXVI])M*(C[MD]|D?C*)(X[CL]|L?X*)(I[XV]|V?I*)$

Regex options: Case insensitive

Regex flavors: .NET, Java, JavaScript, PCRE, Perl, Python, Ruby

Simple Roman numerals:

^(?=[MDCLXVI])M*D?C{0,4}L?X{0,4}V?I{0,4}$

Regex options: Case insensitive

Regex flavors: .NET, Java, JavaScript, PCRE, Perl, Python, Ruby

Discussion

Roman numerals are written using the letters M, D, C, L, X, V, and I, representing the values 1000, 500, 100, 50, 10, 5, and 1, respectively. The first regex matches any string composed of these letters, without checking whether the letters appear in the order or quantity necessary to form a proper Roman numeral.

In modern times (meaning during the past few hundred years), Roman numerals have generally been written following a strict set of rules. These rules yield exactly one Roman numeral per number. For example, 4 is always written as IV, never as IIII. The second regex in the solution matches only Roman numerals that follow these modern rules.

Each nonzero digit of the decimal number is written out separately in the Roman ...