Pattern · India 🇮🇳

Regex for West Bengal vehicle registration

Vehicle plate registered in West Bengal — starts with WB.

The West Bengal vehicle registration regex is ^WB[\s\-]?\d{1,2}[\s\-]?[A-Z]{1,3}[\s\-]?\d{4}$ — copy it below, or open it in the explainer for a token-by-token breakdown.

The pattern

^WB[\s\-]?\d{1,2}[\s\-]?[A-Z]{1,3}[\s\-]?\d{4}$

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What it matches

WB12AB1234
WB-01-C-5678
WB 22 BX 4321

What it doesn't match

WB12AB12
XX12AB1234
WB123AB1234
wb12ab1234

Notes & gotchas

West Bengal vehicle plates start with the state code "WB". Format: state code + 1-2 digit RTO number + 1-3 letter series + 4-digit number. Separators (space/hyphen) optional. Issued by the regional transport offices (RTO).

Code in your language

Use the explainer's Code tab to generate ready-to-paste snippets in JavaScript, Python, Java, .NET, Go, Ruby, and PHP for this pattern.

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Token-by-token breakdown

Every part of the pattern, left to right:

Token	Meaning
`^`	start of string (or line in multiline mode)
`WB`	literal text “WB”
`[\s\-]?`	optional (zero or one): any of: whitespace, “-”
`\d{1,2}`	between 1 and 2 times: digit (0–9)
`[\s\-]?`	optional (zero or one): any of: whitespace, “-”
`[A-Z]{1,3}`	between 1 and 3 times: any of: uppercase letters
`[\s\-]?`	optional (zero or one): any of: whitespace, “-”
`\d{4}`	exactly 4 times: digit (0–9)
`$`	end of string (or line in multiline mode)

About this pattern

India-specific identifiers are governed by various authorities (UIDAI for Aadhaar, Income Tax Dept for PAN, RBI for IFSC, GSTN for GSTIN, etc.). Regex confirms format; for definitive validation, integrate with the issuing authority's verification API.

Quick usage in different languages

This exact pattern — with the correct escaping and idioms for each language:

JavaScript: /^WB[\s\-]?\d{1,2}[\s\-]?[A-Z]{1,3}[\s\-]?\d{4}$/.test(value)
Python: re.match(r"^WB[\s\-]?\d{1,2}[\s\-]?[A-Z]{1,3}[\s\-]?\d{4}$", value)
Java: Pattern.compile("^WB[\\s\\-]?\\d{1,2}[\\s\\-]?[A-Z]{1,3}[\\s\\-]?\\d{4}$").matcher(value).matches()
C# / .NET: Regex.IsMatch(value, @"^WB[\s\-]?\d{1,2}[\s\-]?[A-Z]{1,3}[\s\-]?\d{4}$")
Go: regexp.MustCompile(`^WB[\s\-]?\d{1,2}[\s\-]?[A-Z]{1,3}[\s\-]?\d{4}$`).MatchString(value)
Ruby: /^WB[\s\-]?\d{1,2}[\s\-]?[A-Z]{1,3}[\s\-]?\d{4}$/.match?(value)
PHP: preg_match('~^WB[\s\-]?\d{1,2}[\s\-]?[A-Z]{1,3}[\s\-]?\d{4}$~', $value)

The explainer’s Code tab regenerates these for any pattern you paste, and the downloadable cheat sheet bundles the breakdown, all seven snippets, and the pitfalls below onto one printable page.

Common pitfalls

Anchored to the whole string. This pattern uses ^ and $, so it requires the entire input to match. To find it inside a longer text, drop the anchors and use the global (g) flag.
Uppercase only. Ranges like [A-Z] won't match lowercase. Add a-z (or the i flag) if lowercase input should be accepted.
Escape it correctly per language. In Java and JavaScript strings each backslash must be doubled (\\d); in Python, Go, and C# use raw/verbatim strings so the backslashes survive.
Validate beyond format. Matching the format doesn't guarantee the value is real. Confirm the west bengal vehicle registration against a source of truth (database, API, or checksum) where it matters.

Standards & sources

This pattern is based on the following authoritative specification(s) and issuing authorities. Formats can change — always confirm against the primary source.

Ministry of Road Transport & Highways — Parivahan

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