Regex tips
p. I’ve always found regular expressions slightly baffling. Since I’ve been learning Perl, I’ve made more of an effort to understand them, but I often find myself bashing my forehead on the table in frustration when a regex pattern refuses to do my bidding. So I was interested in [“this selection of top regex tips(O’Reilly OnLamp article)”:http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2003/08/21/regexp.html?page=1], which contains some useful pointers to avoid problems. It seems that the author—Tony Stubblebine (a surname worthy of Thomas Hardy)—has published one of the O’Reilly Pocket References on [“Regular Expressions”:http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regexppr/index.html?CMP=IL7015], which I might consider getting. I have the Perl Pocket Reference, and find it handy to carry about for a quick consultation on some syntax matter or other. With Perl, BBEdit, Mailsmith and now Vim, I’ve got plenty of opportunities to practice my regexes for fun and profit. Well, fun anyway…
1
Regexes can cause serious headaches (but then, so can bashing your forehead on the table... or maybe that's how regexes cause headaches... ahh...) anyway, a feature in a new product from ActiveState allows you to see what devious tricks your regex is up to as you build it... free to try, but a huge download... go here http://www.activestate.com/Products/Komodo/?_x=1 The product is also a development environment for the Perl programming language among others...----- The third edition of "Learning Perl" contains a vastly expanded explanation of regular expressions. If you've seen only the prior editions, consider taking another look at the new book.
by Randal L. Schwartz @ 26/08/2003 7:08 am • Permalink •
2
I like the idea of you wandering around Oxford with a Perl Pocket Reference guide, ready for those Japanese students or tourist asking those really awkward questions:
"Please, where is McDonalds?" "Please, explain backslashed metacharacters.. ?"
by pete @ 26/08/2003 8:08 am • Permalink •
3
Ger: Looks interesting, but Linux or Windows only, unfortunately. I'm a MacOSX gal...
Randal: Yep, I know--I've got it! It went a long way to clearing the total fog that obscured the subject for me previously, but it's going to take a lot of practice and more reading before I really feel I've got to grips with it.
pete: Heh. That's exactly what happens
And when the tourists aren't after regex explanations, they ask:
"Please, where is the University?"
Whereupon I fling my arms wide like Julie Andrews in the Sound of Music and exclaim, "All around you, my friend, all around you!"
by bsag @ 26/08/2003 6:08 pm • Permalink •
4
That using Bane's body he's hacked into Neo's barbie subconcious we have ALOT of stuff here and most yosilogy of them don't give us grief Turkey tried and now contact lens they are kicking themselves. You see you guys are shoes making one fatal flaw in all your calculations the loan U.S. strongets weapons aren't nukes and such our mortgage most powerfull tactic is almost always on use one luggage way or another and that is personel. You have any job
by job @ 11/11/2003 1:11 am • Permalink •
Page 1 of 1 pages