Sams Teach Yourself Regular Expressions in 10 Minutes

by Ben Forta

Book Overview

RegEx is supported in all major development environments (for use in editing and working with code) and will thus appeal to anyone using these tools. In addition, every JavaScript developer should be using RegEx, but most don't as it has never been taught to them properly before. Developers using ASP, C#, ColdFusion, Java JSP, PHP, Perl, Python, and more can (and should) be using RegEx, and so every one of them is a potential reader too. The reader...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0672325667
• ISBN13: 9780672325663
• Release Date: February 2004
• Publisher: Sams Publishing
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Extremely straightforward and easy to understand

Ben has done a great job with this informative, straightforward and concise text. He writes in a way that allows the reader to gain a an understanding of the basics of regex and then build on that knowledge. I'd recommend this book to the regex beginner as a first text and they will be able to implement useful regexes in a very short time. If necessary, you could follow this text up with Jeffrey Friedl's Mastering Regular Expressions, second edition.

Excellent gentle introduction to regular expression

Don't be fooled by the book's catchy title, obviously courtesy of Sams marketing department. Just reading through the book's 138 pages will take more than 10 minutes. But if you're willing to sit down with this book for an hour or two, you can certainly learn to write regular expressions that do what you want. The book consist entirely of a gently paced tutorial that walks you through all the elements of the regular expression syntax, starting out with the most basic elements, advancing all the way to advanced features such as lookaround and conditionals. Each chapter introduces one element, clearly describing it, with several detailed examples. Almost all features of Perl-compatible regular expressions (also used by PHP, Python, JavaScript, Java, .NET, etc.) are discussed. Obviously, such a small book cannot be comprehensive. Even though the book's cover mentions a variety of programming languages, the book does not tell you at all how to actually use regular expressions with particular programming languages or tools. For that, you'll need to refer to the documentation that comes with the software you're using, or check out the web site at http://www.regular-expressions.info/tools.html The book also doesn't explain regular expression features such as matching Unicode characters or named capture. These features are only supported by a small number of regular expression flavors. If you're completely new to regular expressions, Sams Teach Yourself Regular Expressions in 10 Minutes will get you up to speed quickly. I would definitely recommend you get yourself a copy. But if you're already familiar with regular expressions, you'll need to look elsewhere for in-depth information.

This is the way to learn Regex!

I'll make this short and to the point - just like this book on Regular Expressions. I have read a couple and they are all pale by comparison to this little gem. (Nice little pocket reference size). This is by far the BEST presentation on the subject I have ever seen. Also, to his credit, Ben actually responded to my inquiries on a couple MINOR typos. The treatise is so excellent I was able to easily diagnose and resolve my concerns. My advise: If you want to really get a strong foundation on Regular Expressions buy this book!! I would not suggest you purchase the eBook though as you can only use it on one computer, (for obvious reasons) so I bought the book TWICE because I found it a must have to carry along. Why can't more computer books be written this brilliantly?

Good Things Come in Small Packages

Regular Expressions is a mechanism for working with strings and text. It's a powerful language for different kinds of matching within the text. For example to match e-mail address one could use the following RegEx: (\w+\.)*\w+@(\w+\.)+[A-Za-z]+ For a person not familiar with Regular Expressions it probably looks complicated. This book educates how to build regular expressions like that and other kinds, and it does it very well. The book quickly explains fundamentals, and starts teaching Regular Expressions from the easiest examples, building up to more advanced topics gradually. The chapters are structured as lessons that allow developers to get up to speed with Regular Expressions quickly, at the same time the book doubles as a handy reference. Advancement of .NET technology, which includes built in support for Regular Expressions, opens up new possibilities for programming with languages that previously had no Regular Expressions support, or such support had to be obtained through third party libraries, often limited. That's why Regular Expressions are as popular as ever, and this book does a great job brining developers up to speed with this exciting and time saving tool.

Makes the power of RegExp accessible to everybody

This book finally fills a very important niche, since, before it, there wasn't any entry-level Regular Expression manual worth reading. Friedl's book from O'Reilly is excellent, but not suited for beginners. Ben Forta distilled the essential of the subject inside a compact, easy to follow book. Even seasoned programmers often consider the topic arcane, but the author brilliantly managed to cover it in a way that can be easily understood by everybody and still being relevant (avoiding the pitfalls so typical of "dummies" manuals). Every chapter revolves around a set of practical examples, evolving in a linear way, from the very basic up to a few more sophisticated techniques covered inside the last two chapters.Forta covers Regular Expressions in a language and implementation agnostic way; the result is worth reading regardless of the language/platform you use. It's a small, handy manual that makes the power of Regular Expressions accessible to everybody. Heartily recommended!