The Regex Library

At this Site

Samples of Regular Expressions (Regex) for Perl users.

Welcome!

The Regex Library contains samples and examples of Regular Expressions. Regular expressions are strings of characters (numbers, letters, and symbols) that are used to search through and manipulate text-based data. Using a very specialized language, regular expressions (a.k.a. Regex strings) are an incredibly powerful (and arcane!) tool for searching, replacing, extracting, organizing and controlling text files and varibles of any size.

This site is a scrapbook; a collection; a virtual sock drawer of regex strings. It is not a tutorial site, or a place to learn about how to use these arrows in the bow of Perl and Awk and BBEdit. If you’d like to learn more about Regular Expressions, I can’t emphasise enough the absolute need for you to go out—no run out—and buy the regex bible: Mastering Regular Expressions by Jeffrey Friedl published by O’Reilly and Associates. This beautifully written book is one of the most pleasurable non-fiction books I’ve read. If you’re so interested in Regular Expressions that you’ve decided to search for them on the web, you’ll love this book.

That's enough about what this site isn’t. Now for what this site is: a library.

Since this is the first time I’ve ever tried to organize a library of search and manipulation strings, the first few versions of how the entries are organized here will be awkward. Stick with me and it will get better. Promise!

...Ross...

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