title: How to match emoticons with regular expressions?
body: <p>I need to capture smiley faces like </p>
  
  <pre><code>:)
  :P
  :-P
  =)
  :D
  ;)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>And so on, along with general text. This is my current regex:</p>
  
  <pre><code>\b[0-9A-Za-z'\&amp;\-\./()=:;]+\b
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>However, it doesn't match ()=:; for some reason. Am I missing something?</p>
  
  <p><strong>Edit:</strong> Based on Mark's feedback here is an example that I need to parse:</p>
  
  <pre><code>hi =as.) friend :) haha yay! ;) =) test test) R&amp;R I.O.U. 24/7
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>This should extract:</p>
  
  <pre><code>hi
  friend
  :)
  haha
  yay
  ;)
  =)
  test
  test
  R&amp;R
  I.O.U.
  24/7
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I'm having trouble getting this to work using any of the solutions proposed.</p>