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Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center
Except
  • See Also
    • PatternTest
    • Condition
    • DeleteCases
    • Alternatives
    • Cases
  • Related Guides
    • Patterns
    • String Patterns
    • Rules & Patterns
    • String Manipulation
  • Workflows
    • Write a Function That Can Return Unevaluated
  • Tech Notes
    • Patterns and Transformation Rules
    • Putting Constraints on Patterns
    • Setting Up Functions with Optional Arguments
    • String Patterns
    • Working with String Patterns
    • See Also
      • PatternTest
      • Condition
      • DeleteCases
      • Alternatives
      • Cases
    • Related Guides
      • Patterns
      • String Patterns
      • Rules & Patterns
      • String Manipulation
    • Workflows
      • Write a Function That Can Return Unevaluated
    • Tech Notes
      • Patterns and Transformation Rules
      • Putting Constraints on Patterns
      • Setting Up Functions with Optional Arguments
      • String Patterns
      • Working with String Patterns

Except[c]

is a pattern object which represents any expression except one that matches c.

Except[c,p]

represents any expression that matches p but not c.

Details
Details and Options Details and Options
Examples  
Basic Examples  
Scope  
Applications  
See Also
Tech Notes
Related Guides
Related Workflows
Related Links
History
Cite this Page
BUILT-IN SYMBOL
  • See Also
    • PatternTest
    • Condition
    • DeleteCases
    • Alternatives
    • Cases
  • Related Guides
    • Patterns
    • String Patterns
    • Rules & Patterns
    • String Manipulation
  • Workflows
    • Write a Function That Can Return Unevaluated
  • Tech Notes
    • Patterns and Transformation Rules
    • Putting Constraints on Patterns
    • Setting Up Functions with Optional Arguments
    • String Patterns
    • Working with String Patterns
    • See Also
      • PatternTest
      • Condition
      • DeleteCases
      • Alternatives
      • Cases
    • Related Guides
      • Patterns
      • String Patterns
      • Rules & Patterns
      • String Manipulation
    • Workflows
      • Write a Function That Can Return Unevaluated
    • Tech Notes
      • Patterns and Transformation Rules
      • Putting Constraints on Patterns
      • Setting Up Functions with Optional Arguments
      • String Patterns
      • Working with String Patterns

Except

Except[c]

is a pattern object which represents any expression except one that matches c.

Except[c,p]

represents any expression that matches p but not c.

Details

  • Except[c] is equivalent to Except[c,_].
  • Except[c] represents the complement of the set of expressions that match c.
  • Except works in StringExpression.

Examples

open all close all

Basic Examples  (2)

This gives all elements except 0:

Wolfram Language code: Cases[{1, 0, 2, 0, 3}, Except[0]]

Delete all nonvowel characters from a string:

Wolfram Language code: StringReplace["the cat in the hat", Except[Characters["aeiou"]] -> ""]

Scope  (2)

Except works with patterns and string patterns:

Wolfram Language code: Cases[{a, b, 0, 1, 2, x, y}, Except[_Integer]]
Wolfram Language code: StringReplace["1a2b3c4", Except[DigitCharacter].. -> ""]

Constraints on patterns:

Wolfram Language code: Cases[{a, b, 0, 1, 2, x, y}, Except[0, _Integer]]
Wolfram Language code: StringReplace["1a2b3c4", Except["a", LetterCharacter].. -> ""]

Applications  (3)

Get all non-integers:

Wolfram Language code: Cases[{1, 1, -5, EulerGamma, r, I, 0, Pi, 1 / 2}, Except[_Integer]]

Find words containing nonword characters:

Wolfram Language code: StringMatchQ[{"ain't", "test", "A&M", "anybody"}, ___ ~~ Except[WordCharacter] ~~ ___]

Strip off all tags "<...>" from an HTML document:

Wolfram Language code: StringReplace[ "<title>The Title</title> <h1>The <a href='link'>head</a></h1> <p>Some text follows here...</p>", "<" ~~ Except[">"].. ~~ ">" -> ""]

See Also

PatternTest  Condition  DeleteCases  Alternatives  Cases

Tech Notes

    ▪
  • Patterns and Transformation Rules
  • ▪
  • Putting Constraints on Patterns
  • ▪
  • Setting Up Functions with Optional Arguments
  • ▪
  • String Patterns
  • ▪
  • Working with String Patterns

Related Guides

    ▪
  • Patterns
  • ▪
  • String Patterns
  • ▪
  • Rules & Patterns
  • ▪
  • String Manipulation

Related Workflows

    Related Workflows
    ▪
  • Write a Function That Can Return Unevaluated

Related Links

  • An Elementary Introduction to the Wolfram Language : More about Patterns

History

Introduced in 2004 (5.1)

Wolfram Research (2004), Except, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Except.html.

Text

Wolfram Research (2004), Except, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Except.html.

CMS

Wolfram Language. 2004. "Except." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Except.html.

APA

Wolfram Language. (2004). Except. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Except.html

BibTeX

@misc{reference.wolfram_2026_except, author="Wolfram Research", title="{Except}", year="2004", howpublished="\url{https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Except.html}", note=[Accessed: 01-September-2026]}

BibLaTeX

@online{reference.wolfram_2026_except, organization={Wolfram Research}, title={Except}, year={2004}, url={https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Except.html}, note=[Accessed: 01-September-2026]}

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