Introduction to Regular Expressions

Well, I have procrastinated enough – it's time to get into regular expressions! In the past I have inserted a regular expression (also known as a regexp or regex) in past articles, but I have always stated the discussion of them was out of scope. Truly regex deserves its own article – and then some!

The reason I have delayed is that quite frankly, regular expressions can be very difficult to build, use and understand. Many people find them very difficult and avoid them altogether at all costs. I'll be the first to admit I'm not regular expression expert – however I do use them when I can. Like anything else regular expressions are a tool (in this case, a very powerful one) that can be used to your advantage. It would be silly to discard it altogether because it might be a little harder to use than something with which you are more comfortable.