---
title: Regex Phrase
description: Matches a specific sequence of regex queries
canonical: https://docs.paradedb.com/documentation/query-builder/phrase/regex-phrase
---

Regex phrase matches a specific sequence of regex queries. Think of it like a conjunction of [regex](/documentation/query-builder/term/regex)
queries, with positions and ordering of tokens enforced.

For example, the regex phrase query for `ru.* shoes` will match `running shoes`, but will not match `shoes running`.

<CodeGroup>
```sql SQL
SELECT description, rating, category
FROM mock_items
WHERE description @@@ pdb.regex_phrase(ARRAY['ru.*', 'shoes']);
```

```python Django
from paradedb import ParadeDB, RegexPhrase

MockItem.objects.filter(
    description=ParadeDB(RegexPhrase('ru.*', 'shoes'))
).values('description', 'rating', 'category')
```

```python SQLAlchemy
from sqlalchemy import select
from sqlalchemy.orm import Session
from paradedb.sqlalchemy import search

stmt = (
    select(MockItem.description, MockItem.rating, MockItem.category)
    .where(search.regex_phrase(MockItem.description, ["ru.*", "shoes"]))
)

with Session(engine) as session:
    session.execute(stmt).all()
```

```ruby Rails
MockItem.search(:description)
        .regex_phrase("ru.*", "shoes")
        .select(:description, :rating, :category)
```

</CodeGroup>

<div className="mt-8" />

<ParamField body="phrases" required>
  An `ARRAY` of expressions that form the search phrase. These expressions must
  appear in the specified order within the document for a match to occur,
  although some flexibility is allowed based on the `slop` parameter. Please see
  [regex](/documentation/query-builder/term/regex) for allowed regex constructs.
</ParamField>
<ParamField body="slop" default={0}>
  A slop of `0` requires the terms to appear exactly as they are in the phrase
  and adjacent to each other. Higher slop values allow for transpositions and
  distance between terms.
</ParamField>
<ParamField body="max_expansions" default={16384}>
  Limits total number of terms that the regex phrase query can expand to. If
  this number is exceeded, an error will be returned.
</ParamField>
