skiabox
asked on
Best way to learn regular expressions
What is the best way to learn regular expressions?
Should I use any software?
Thank you.
Should I use any software?
Thank you.
initdotdan
Use any *nix box. Use vi on your *nix box. You can study up on advanced file processing on vi.
ASKER
I have a macbook pro , so I can use the bash shell.
Practice, practice, practice! = )
In all seriousness, I started participating here in the regex TA, and most of my knowledge in regex has come from helping others solve their regex quandaries. This gave me many opportunities to practice regex.
You have to be mindful, though, that different languages and different text editors don't always implement the same regex engines or even use the same regex syntax. Just because you understand regex in one language, the text editor you use may use an entirely different syntax. Generally speaking, the theory behind regex is universal. Although different languages/editors may implement different engines, a regex is more or less a state machine. You don't really need to understand all of the gory details of a state machine in order to understand regex, but at times it may help you to understand why a regex is performing a certain behavior.
In all seriousness, I started participating here in the regex TA, and most of my knowledge in regex has come from helping others solve their regex quandaries. This gave me many opportunities to practice regex.
You have to be mindful, though, that different languages and different text editors don't always implement the same regex engines or even use the same regex syntax. Just because you understand regex in one language, the text editor you use may use an entirely different syntax. Generally speaking, the theory behind regex is universal. Although different languages/editors may implement different engines, a regex is more or less a state machine. You don't really need to understand all of the gory details of a state machine in order to understand regex, but at times it may help you to understand why a regex is performing a certain behavior.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
ASKER
Thank you so much guys!
Thanks for the assist, and the points.
Good luck & have a great day.
Good luck & have a great day.
You can use the Terminal and vi on your Macbook pro.