If you’re a programmer new to regular expressions, this easy-to-follow guide is a great place to start. You’ll learn the fundamentals step-by-step with the help of numerous examples, discovering first-hand how to match, extract, and transform text by matching specific words, characters, and patterns. Regular expressions are an essential part of a programmer’s toolkit, available in various Unix utlilities as well as programming languages such as Perl, Java, JavaScript, and C#. When you’ve finished this book, you’ll be familiar with the most commonly used syntax in regular expressions, and you’ll understand how using them will save you considerable time. Discover what regular expressions are and how they work Learn many of the differences between regular expressions used with command-line tools and in various programming languages Apply simple methods for finding patterns in text, including digits, letters, Unicode characters, and string literals Learn how to use zero-width assertions and lookarounds Work with groups, backreferences, character classes, and quantifiers Use regular expressions to mark up plain text with HTML5

Regular expressions are an extremely powerful tool for manipulating text and data. They are now standard features in a wide range of languages and popular tools, including Perl, Python, Ruby, Java, VB.NET and C# (and any language using the .NET Framework), PHP, and MySQL. If you don't use regular expressions yet, you will discover in this book a whole new world of mastery over your data. If you already use them, you'll appreciate this book's unprecedented detail and breadth of coverage. If you think you know all you need to know about regularexpressions, this book is a stunning eye-opener. As this book shows, a command of regular expressions is an invaluable skill. Regular expressions allow you to code complex and subtle text processing that you never imagined could be automated. Regular expressions can save you time and aggravation. They can be used to craft elegant solutions to a wide range of problems. Once you've mastered regular expressions, they'll become an invaluable part of your toolkit. You will wonder how you ever got by without them. Yet despite their wide availability, flexibility, and unparalleled power, regular expressions are frequently underutilized. Yet what is power in the hands of an expert can be fraught with peril for the unwary. Mastering Regular Expressions will help you navigate the minefield to becoming an expert and help you optimize your use of regular expressions. Mastering Regular Expressions, Third Edition, now includes a full chapter devoted to PHP and its powerful and expressive suite of regular expression functions, in addition to enhanced PHP coverage in the central "core" chapters. Furthermore, this edition has been updated throughout to reflect advances in other languages, including expanded in-depth coverage of Sun's java.util.regex package, which has emerged as the standard Java regex implementation.Topics include: A comparison of features among different versions of many languages and tools How the regular expression engine works Optimization (major savings available here!) Matching just what you want, but not what you don't want Sections and chapters on individual languages Written in the lucid, entertaining tone that makes a complex, dry topic become crystal-clear to programmers, and sprinkled with solutions to complex real-world problems, Mastering Regular Expressions, Third Edition offers a wealth information that you can put to immediateuse. Reviews of this new edition and the second edition: "There isn't a better (or more useful) book available on regular expressions." --Zak Greant, Managing Director, eZ Systems "A real tour-de-force of a book which not only covers the mechanics of regexes in extraordinary detail but also talks about efficiency and the use of regexes in Perl, Java, and .NET...If you use regular expressions as part of your professional work (even if you already have a good book on whatever language you're programming in) I would strongly recommend this book to you." --Dr. Chris Brown, Linux Format "The author does an outstanding job leading the reader from regexnovice to master. The book is extremely easy to read and chock full ofuseful and relevant examples...Regular expressions are valuable toolsthat every developer should have in their toolbox. Mastering RegularExpressions is the definitive guide to the subject, and an outstandingresource that belongs on every programmer's bookshelf. Ten out of TenHorseshoes." --Jason Menard, Java Ranch

Introduces regular expressions and how they are used, discussing topics including metacharacters, nomenclature, matching and modifying text, expression processing, benchmarking, optimizations, and loops.

Take the guesswork out of using regular expressions. With more than 140 practical recipes, this cookbook provides everything you need to solve a wide range of real-world problems. Novices will learn basic skills and tools, and programmers and experienced users will find a wealth of detail. Each recipe provides samples you can use right away. This revised edition covers the regular expression flavors used by C#, Java, JavaScript, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, and VB.NET. You’ll learn powerful new tricks, avoid flavor-specific gotchas, and save valuable time with this huge library of practical solutions. Learn regular expressions basics through a detailed tutorial Use code listings to implement regular expressions with your language of choice Understand how regular expressions differ from language to language Handle common user input with recipes for validation and formatting Find and manipulate words, special characters, and lines of text Detect integers, floating-point numbers, and other numerical formats Parse source code and process log files Use regular expressions in URLs, paths, and IP addresses Manipulate HTML, XML, and data exchange formats Discover little-known regular expression tricks and techniques

Learn to use one of the most powerful text processing and manipulation tools available Regular expression experts have long been armed with an incredibly powerful tool, one that can be used to perform all sorts of sophisticated text processing and manipulation in just about every language and on every platform. That’s the good news. The bad news is that for too long, regular expressions have been the exclusive property of only the most tech savvy. Until now. Ben Forta's Learning Regular Expressions teaches you the regular expressions that you really need to know, starting with simple text matches and working up to more complex topics, including the use of backreferences, conditional evaluation, and look-ahead processing. You’ll learn what you can use, and you’ll learn it methodically, systematically, and simply. Regular expressions are nowhere near as complex as they appear to be at first glance. All it takes is a clear understanding of the problem being solved and how to leverage regular expressions to solve them. Read and understand regular expressions Use literal text and metacharacters to build powerful search patterns Take advantage of advanced regular expression features, including lookahead and backreferences Perform powerful search-and-replace operations in all major professional editing tools Add sophisticated form and text processing to web applications Search for files using command-line tools like grep and egrep Use regular expressions in programming languages like JavaScript, Java, PHP, Python, Microsoft .NET, and C#, as well as in DBMSs including MySQL and Oracle Work with phone numbers, postal codes, social security numbers, IP addresses, URLs, email addresses, and credit card numbers Contents at a Glance 1 Introducing Regular Expressions 2 Matching Single Characters 3 Matching Sets of Characters 4 Using Metacharacters 5 Repeating Matches 6 Position Matching 7 Using Subexpressions 8 Using Backreferences 9 Looking Ahead and Behind 10 Embedding Conditions 11 Regular Expression Solutions to Common Problems Appendix A Regular Expressions in Popular Applications and Languages

A short and straight to the point guide that explains the implementation of Regular Expressions in Python. This book is aimed at Python developers who want to learn how to leverage Regular Expressions in Python. Basic knowledge of Python is required for a better understanding.

This book is your easy-to-digest and concise guide to regular expressions in JavaScript, this book teaches you the very basics and can be used in the browser or on the server. Explore and understand how to use regular expressions in all JavaScript environments. Presented in four key concept sections, Introducing Regular Expressions shows how to create and use regular expressions to accelerate your JavaScript development. What You'll Learn What regular expressions are and why you should use them Use useful expressions (including examples) Reference features and functions Use regular expressions in all JavaScript environments Who This Book Is For Developers of web applications who want to explore the capabilities of JavaScript based apps on both, client and server. It’s suitable for beginners that have a basic understanding of JavaScript already.