Regex Quick Syntax Reference

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

   PDF

2. An Introduction to Regular Expressions

   • Zsolt Nagy

   Pages 1-8

3. Regex Syntax 101

   • Zsolt Nagy

   Pages 9-21

4. Executing Regular Expressions

   • Zsolt Nagy

   Pages 23-51

5. Visualizing Regex Execution Using Finite State Machines

   • Zsolt Nagy

   Pages 53-66

6. Repeat Modifiers

   • Zsolt Nagy

   Pages 67-84

7. Character Sets and Character Classes

   • Zsolt Nagy

   Pages 85-93

8. Substring Extraction from Regular Expressions

   • Zsolt Nagy

   Pages 95-108

9. Lookahead and Lookbehind

   • Zsolt Nagy

   Pages 109-113

10. Maintaining Regular Expressions

    • Zsolt Nagy

    Pages 115-129

11. Optimizing Regular Expressions

    • Zsolt Nagy

    Pages 131-139

12. Parsing HTML Code and URL Query Strings with Regular Expressions

    • Zsolt Nagy

    Pages 141-145

13. Back Matter

    Pages 147-153

    PDF

This quick guide to regular expressions is a condensed code and syntax reference for an important programming technique. It demonstrates regex syntax in a well-organized format that can be used as a handy reference, showing you how to execute regexes in many languages, including JavaScript, Python, Java, and C#.


The Regex Quick Syntax Reference features short, focused code examples that show you how to use regular expressions to validate user input, split strings, parse input, and match patterns. Utilizing regular expressions to deal with search/replace and filtering data for backend coding is also covered. 


You won’t find any bloated samples, drawn out history lessons, or witty stories in this book. What you will find is a language reference that is concise and highly accessible. The book is packed with useful information and is a must-have for any programmer.


What You Will Learn

• Formulate an expression
  
• Work with arbitrary char classes, disjunctions, and operator precedence
  
• Execute regular expressions and visualize using finite state machines
  
• Deal with modifiers, including greedy and lazy loops 
  
• Handle substring extraction from regex using Perl 6 capture groups, capture substrings, and reuse substrings 
  

Who This Book Is For


If you have dealt with at least one programming language, chances are you know enough to understand regular expressions, and the examples in this book will help you develop proficiency.

• regex
• Regular Expressions
• quick
• syntax
• reference
• source code
• programming
• code
• text
• JavaScript
• Perl
• Perl 6
• Java
• Python
• C#
• C Sharp

• Berlin, Germany

  Zsolt Nagy

Zsolt Nagy is a web development team lead, mentor and software engineer living in Berlin, Germany. He programs with JavaScript, Perl and other open source web technologies. Zsolt is also experienced in using and teaching regular expressions using these technologies. He writes a blog about lessons learned while solving complex problems, experimenting with technology and teaching other people on how to improve their skills. As a software engineer, he continuously challenges himself to stick to the highest possible standards.

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