Regular Expression : Useful Tools and Resources

A Regular Expression is a term used in Computer science and language. Regular Expression or Regex is a set or sequence of characters that define a search pattern. This method is mostly used in “find” or “search and replace” application. Regex is used in search operations where “find and replace” options are used, especially in word processor.

Features of Regex:

A Regular Expression is a very powerful method which is required at every step when you are using a programming language. It is of utmost importance when you are performing scan and replace option for future actions. If you want to improve your URL or if you want to modify your RSS feed then you must definitely use Regex. If you are a beginner in learning regular expression then you will find some difficulty in understanding its expressions but in a moment of time it will become very easy for you to work on it.

Applications of Regex:

Regular Expression or regex is used in wide variety of issues. The most common is word processing and string processing where regex is commonly and intensively used. In the above two, there is no need of factual expression. Apart from these, regex is also used in Data Wrangling, Data scraping, data validation, and simple parsing, the system of syntax highlighting system and many other tasks. This method is also used in Google search options.

Advantages of Regex:

Regular Expression is very flexible in nature and to run this application you don’t need to change much of your settings. The second advantage of regular expression is that it is fast in nature and does processing in a very fast speed. The regex is language independent. It means that there is no necessity to write a regular expression in a definite code or the code changes with different languages. The most basic advantage of regex is that it is efficient. You don’t need to write much for executing a task and it can be written in one single line of code. It is often more simpler than ‘substrings+ index’ approach.

Disadvantages of Regular Expression:

In the early phase of regex, it is hard to read and understand the code of regex. A simple code like ‘?’ has three meanings in different context. It is also hard to debug it as not much info is provided if the match is not found. The compilation part is only done at the runtime adding it to another disadvantage.

Some Resources and Tools:

• Expresso: Desktop Regex Tools
• The Regex Coach
• RegExr Desktop
• Regex Widget

Regular Expression as a tool provides various number of advantages for the user. It is often recommended to use Regex.