Mastering Regular Expressions

Amazon.com

Regular expressions are a central element of UNIX utilities like egrep and programming languages such as Perl. But whether you're a UNIX user or not, you can benefit from a better understanding of regular expressions since they work with applications ranging from validating data-entry fields to manipulating information in multimegabyte text files. Mastering Regular Expressions quickly covers the basics of regular-expression syntax, then delves into the mechanics of expression-processing, common pitfalls, performance issues, and implementation-specific differences. Written in an engaging style and sprinkled with solutions to complex real-world problems, Mastering Regular Expressions offers a wealth information that you can put to immediate use.

Book Description

Regular expressions are an extremely powerful tool for manipulating text and data. They are now standard features in a wide range of languages and popular tools, including Perl, Python, Ruby, Java, VB.NET and C# (and any language using the .NET Framework), PHP, and MySQL.

If you don't use regular expressions yet, you will discover in this book a whole new world of mastery over your data. If you already use them, you'll appreciate this book's unprecedented detail and breadth of coverage. If you think you know all you need to know about regular expressions, this book is a stunning eye-opener.

As this book shows, a command of regular expressions is an invaluable skill. Regular expressions allow you to code complex and subtle text processing that you never imagined could be automated. Regular expressions can save you time and aggravation. They can be used to craft elegant solutions to a wide range of problems. Once you've mastered regular expressions, they'll become an invaluable part of your toolkit. You will wonder how you ever got by without them.

Yet despite their wide availability, flexibility, and unparalleled power, regular expressions are frequently underutilized. Yet what is power in the hands of an expert can be fraught with peril for the unwary. Mastering Regular Expressions will help you navigate the minefield to becoming an expert and help you optimize your use of regular expressions.

Mastering Regular Expressions, Third Edition, now includes a full chapter devoted to PHP and its powerful and expressive suite of regular expression functions, in addition to enhanced PHP coverage in the central "core" chapters. Furthermore, this edition has been updated throughout to reflect advances in other languages, including expanded in-depth coverage of Sun's java.util.regex package, which has emerged as the standard Java regex implementation. Topics include:

A comparison of features among different versions of many languages and tools
How the regular expression engine works
Optimization (major savings available here!)
Matching just what you want, but not what you don't want
Sections and chapters on individual languages

Written in the lucid, entertaining tone that makes a complex, dry topic become crystal-clear to programmers, and sprinkled with solutions to complex real-world problems, Mastering Regular Expressions, Third Edition offers a wealth information that you can put to immediate use.

Reviews of this new edition and the second edition:

"There isn't a better (or more useful) book available on regular expressions."
--Zak Greant, Managing Director, eZ Systems

"A real tour-de-force of a book which not only covers the mechanics of regexes in extraordinary detail but also talks about efficiency and the use of regexes in Perl, Java, and .NET...If you use regular expressions as part of your professional work (even if you already have a good book on whatever language you're programming in) I would strongly recommend this book to you."
--Dr. Chris Brown, Linux Format

"The author does an outstanding job leading the reader from regex novice to master. The book is extremely easy to read and chock full of useful and relevant examples...Regular expressions are valuable tools that every developer should have in their toolbox. Mastering Regular Expressions is the definitive guide to the subject, and an outstanding resource that belongs on every programmer's bookshelf. Ten out of Ten Horseshoes."
--Jason Menard, Java Ranch

Customer Reviews:

More than expected........2007-08-24

I have been in computer software developer over 7 years now and never really used regular expression until a year ago. True, you can live without it. But, with regular expression at hand, you climb up another level of programming. Code will be much concise and code research will be like a breeze.

Anyway, I didn't read this book entirely since later chapters explain intricacies and subtle differences of each specific language, e.g., java, perl, php, etc. It didn't take long to apply the knowledge I gained to real work and benefit. By the time I completed the first chapter, I already started to get rewards. My life is a lot easier now.

Even with only the first 3 chapters, this book is well worth its price. The author did superb job explaining what's going on behind the scene and guide you through the right way of constructing regular expressions for various situations. Of course, he will show you common pitfalls to avoid, too. Very detailed and comprehensive.

Highly recommended.

Best Regex material I've ever read.......2007-08-16

Before reading this book, I would have considered myself an intermediate regexer. After the first 2 chapters, I realized how novice I really was. Having only made it through 5 chapters of this book, I can't say enough about it. The detail and step-by-step analysis that Mr. Friedl takes to describe the regex matching process is the best I've ever seen. It's little things that make the analysis easy to follow -- like the brackets he uses to mark the regex, and the small triangle cursor to show where the engine is in the matching process. I continue to look forward to each new chapter. Thank you for a wonderful work of art.

VERY VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!.......2007-05-23

Are you a programmer working on text-related tasks? If you are, then this book is for you. Author Jeffrey Friedl, has done an outstanding job of writing a cool book that will interest anyone who has an opportunity to use regular expressions.

Friedl, begin with an introduction to the concept of regular expressions. Then, the author takes a look at text processing with regular expressions. Next, the author provides an overview of features and utilities, plus a bit of history. He also explains the details of how regular expressions work. The author continues by working through regular expressions examples. Then, he discusses efficiency in detail. Next, the author covers Perl regular expressions in detail. He then looks at Sun's java.util.regex package. The author continues by looking at .NET's language-neutral regular-expression package. Finally, the author looks at PHP's preg suite of regex functions.

This most excellent book should expand your understanding, even if you consider yourself an accomplished regular-expression expert. Perhaps more importantly, the book concentrates on mastering a particular implementation!

Good Information.......2007-05-07

Many people only barely utilize regular experssions, having been unable to get more than basic expressions to work. There are a lot of reasons for this - shell escapes, man pages that are terse to the point of being cryptic, etc. This book is a clear and very readable trip through practical regular expression creation and application that will enable the reader to get the most out of grep, awk, perl and other programs that use regular expressions.

The ultimate book for the ultimate demands - For an introduction just too heavy weight.......2007-05-03

Jeffrey Friedl describes regular expressions at an amazing depth and precision. Regular expressions are not easy and the quirks of the different tools (including their exact version and for what operating system) make writing them to an irritating black art. A black art to almost anybody. MRE sorts everything out in a comprehensible fashion. The price the reader has to pay: a very dense book, a need to follow the details until your head starts swimming and a lot of strain on the memory about what works, how and where.

MRE is somewhat easier to comprehend for a reader with a strong Pearl background. Also a good prior understanding to regular expressions is a true asset here. If you have neither, you do not need to despair. Jeffrey Friedl explains everything thoroughly from the ground up.

The writing style is very pedagogical. Important things get repeated quite often. Still this book is very dense. The flow is dry: no rhythm, special sense of humor or wit sweetens your wading through the material. Nevertheless Jeffrey Friedl kept my interest through the pages though the reading felt like hard work.

I do recommend this book to the truly dedicated reader.

Python Scripting for Computational Science (Texts in Computational Science and Engineering)

Average customer rating:

strong computational emphasis
Great Suppliment to Numerical methods
Python for Science Academics and Engineers, NOT programmers
Convincing demonstration of Python's value in science

Python Scripting for Computational Science (Texts in Computational Science and Engineering)
Hans Petter Langtangen
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Accessories:

ASIN: 3540294155

Book Description

The goal of this book is to teach computational scientists how to develop tailored, flexible, and human-efficient working environments built from small programs (scripts) written in the easy-to-learn, high-level language Python. The focus is on examples and applications of relevance to computational scientists: gluing existing applications and tools, e.g. for automating simulation, data analysis, and visualization; steering simulations and computational experiments; equipping old programs with graphical user interfaces; making computational Web applications; and creating interactive interfaces with a Maple/Matlab-like syntax to numerical applications in C/C++ or Fortran. In short, scripting with Python makes you much more productive, increases the reliability of your scientific work and lets you have more fun - on Unix, Windows and Macintosh. All the tools and examples in this book are open source codes. The third edition is compatible with the new NumPy implementation and features updated information, correction of errors, and improved associated software tools.

Customer Reviews:

strong computational emphasis.......2006-11-13

Langtangen's emphasis here is on a reader who comes from a strong background in engineering or science, and is familiar with common computational ideas and has done some programming, but not necessarily in Python. The typical book on Python is aimed at a general programming reader, and the examples in such a book usually are quite elementary, from a computational viewpoint.

The merit of Langtangen's book is that he gets into a lot of computational ideas. This is not a trivial book. Aspects like parsing data in files, connecting to local and remote hosts, and interacting with programs written in other languages are covered. For the latter, the important cases of Fortran and C programs are explained. The choices of these languages is deliberate. In science and engineering, they are the dominant languages for raw computation. And you are likely to have legacy code written in these, that you cannot abandon while using Python.

Great Suppliment to Numerical methods.......2006-07-25

When I first got ahold of this book I had just finished learning all the gory details of good numerical codes. But when developing tests for simple cases I found that development went way too slow, so someone suggested I learn Python. This book provides a great demonstration of how python can supplement your existing codes. Either by organizing the tests, formatting output, or just adding pretty interfaces.

This book contains a lot of the necessary extras that a scientist or engineer must do to get his work going or finished, which is too pedantic to be taught in most courses. It shows the power of Python over some other scripting languages for this purpose. It is definitely one of the best references on my book shelf.

Python for Science Academics and Engineers, NOT programmers.......2005-06-03

I bought this book as an experienced programmer and Unix user expecting more of a "Numerical Recepies in Python" emphasis on the efficient implementation of algorithms which happen to be in Python. I should have paid more attention to the description.

This book is really more of a "Grad Student's Guide to Everyday Python Usage". I imagine it would be very valuable to a mathematics Grad student without too much programming or shell experience, looking for an alternative to Matlab. However, there is very little "Computational Science" in this book. Do NOT expect a cookbook of high performance algorithm implementations.

The book is a very verbose 700+ pages, all in an unexciting academic LaTeX format. The author works through idiom after idiom for accomplishing different tasks in fairly stand-alone sub-sections without much of a feeling of conceptual "flow" between them. It sort of feels like reading through the author's personal lab notes that he took everytime he learned a new language feature or trick.

If you are an experienced programmer, you will quickly get impatient with the verbose presentation that emphasizes idioms and examples instead of fundamental concepts and syntax reference tables. But, if you are an experienced programmer, you are not the target audience for this book.

Braddock Gaskill

Convincing demonstration of Python's value in science.......2004-10-15

The author has 2 main goals:
1) To improve the productivity of scientists familiar with specific software systems (especially Matlab, Maple, and Mathematica) by teaching them to "glue" applications together.
2) To advocate Python as the preferred "glue" language. In his own words, "I hope to convince computational scientists having experience with Perl that Python is a preferable alternative, especially for large long-term projects."

He has certainly done a creditable job. As an expert in computational differential equations, he neglects neither efficiency nor correctness, while stressing both simplicity and reliability. In this sense, he has done a great service to the Python community.

The question is: What justifies the purchase of his book?
The answer is: Chapters 4, 9, and 10.

Contents:

1. Introduction--26pp
Very convincing arguments.

2. Getting Started With Python Scripting--38pp
Interesting examples.

3. Basic Python--56pp
A too-quick tutorial. Go to python dot org instead.

4. Numerical Computing in Python--48pp
Stellar explanations of vectorized array operations.

5. Combining Python with Fortran, C, and C++--36pp
Details use of Fortran2Py and SWIG. Mentions many alternatives.

6. Introduction to GUI Programming--70pp
Useful examples of Tkinter/pmw widgets.

7. Web Interfaces and CGI Programming--24pp
Good source of ideas.

8. Advanced Python--132pp
Deep and extensive. Includes: option parsing, regular expressions, data persistence and compression, object-oriented programming, exceptions, generic programming, efficiency.

9. Fortran Programming with NumPy Arrays--32pp
All about efficiency and re-use.

10. C and C++ Programming with NumPy Arrays--40pp
More about efficiency. NumPy C API, C++ objects, and SCXX.

11. More Advanced GUI Programming--73pp
Tedious discussion of both Web and standalone GUIs. BLT, canvas, cgi.

12. Tools and Examples--70pp
Excellent examples of PDE solvers, with a powerful GUI, but quite long and tedious.

A. Setting up the Required Software Environment--16pp
Wonderfully specific installation instructions!

B. Elements of Software Engineering--50pp
Python's strength! Very practical advice on modularity, documentation, coding style, regression-testing, version-control.

Strengths:
+ Downloadable py4cs package, esp. numpytools module
+ Great advice everywhere, e.g. CGI checklist, Pythonic programming, and trouble-shooting.
+ Concrete evidence for most assertions.
+ Very attractive presentation. Sturdy, high-quality cover, binding and pages. Brief, elegant code fragments (except in Chapter 12). Readable prose. No wasted space.
+ Available as 5MB pdf file, after purchase of hardcopy. Very nice.
+ Slides, installation instructions, and errata also at web site. Very professional.

My peeves:
- Not enough tables to be a useful manual.
- On p.428(#7) he points out that handling a raised exception is very slow. However, when I time his example with a positive argument, the try-except version is 20% faster (b/c the if clause is skipped), so he is actually giving bad advice for the general case. Luckily, he contradicts himself later, on page 685: "Exceptions should be used instead of if-else tests." The best advice: Avoid common exceptions in inner loops.
- The 10-page index is not as great as it at first seems. (See Martelli's Python in a Nutshell for a better one.)
- Pure interface functions should 'raise NotImplementedError', rather than 'return'.
- Exceptions should never be trapped mindlessly with 'except:'. That would hide your own SyntaxErrors!
- Too many exercises. (It's published as a textbook.) Since there are no answers, the exercises are useless for non-students. (See Lutz's Learning Python for effective exercises with answers.)

Overall rating:
This contains the best information on numerical programming in Python that I've seen. Though expensive, it could easily be your only Python book, given the excellent online documenation already available.

Average customer rating:

Instant Classic
Valuable information poorly presented
And now for something different...
If you need to process text, this is a great book!
Very good, somewhat advanced

Text Processing in Python
David Mertz
Manufacturer: Addison-Wesley Professional
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0321112547

Customer Reviews:

Instant Classic.......2007-08-23

TPIP is an instant classic in that all you need to do is add a solid understanding of python and you can instantly appreciate its classic nature. Text processing is more fundamental to programming than programming itself. For instance, most of the programs a programmer will write will be written with text. So gaining proficiency in dealing with text is key to not only programming but probably every facet of one's experience with a computer.

In TPIP, David Mertz provides the reader with a set of tools for manipulating text in python. The book is organized by type of text processing activity. For example filters are presented from a functional perspective, searching text is presented in terms of regular expressions, etc. Relevant modules are presented with each type of processing task in a reference format.

The greatest value in the book is that it approaches a fundamental and important programming topic that most books would treat sparingly or dismiss outright. TPIP might be in league with Friedl's Mastering Regular Expressions in that it takes outwardly uninspiring topics, makes them interesting, and teaches them with pedagogical finesse. Somehow, Mertz inspires the reader to feel intelligent while presenting the topics in an accessible way. Even mxtexttools becomes comprehensible in TPIP.

TPIP, though, is not without it shortcomings, especially in organization. The review of python and functional programming are put in appendices and the reference material is interleaved with the text, giving the reader a somewhat disjointed feeling as he makes his way through the book. Better would have been to build the book up from a solid review of the python language, proceeding to a thorough treatment of functional programming in python, to then present the meat of the book, text processing, as a well-organized whole with sensible segue between the chapters. The reference material should be moved to the appendices for easy access.

Even if these organization problems are never fixed, one would be well served to study this fine volume.

Valuable information poorly presented.......2007-04-11

There is a lot of good stuff in this book, but the presentation is lousy.

The first chapter dives into functional programming using obscure and terse high order functions including nested lambda expressions. He never does provide a "mere mortal" explanation for how these functions work. I was able to figure it out, but then I've been programming for 35 years in 20+ languages.

As a learning experience it was valuable debugging exercise for me, but as something for a programmer who was just getting to know Python, I can't think of a greater turn off.

Python as a rule is easy to read and easy to write. This book manages to make it unnecessarily hard.

Start with another Python book (or two, or three) then come back to this one when you have a lot of time and patience to spend. As I said there *is* some worthwhile information in there.

And now for something different..........2005-09-22

I'd second most of the positive statements given by other reviewers. To boot - the author's voice is clear and pleasant. He shares his knowledge as it is, without dumbing it down or condescending. The index is very useful when you want to get in, get the information, and get back to work. This book is a great read for anyone learning or using Python seriously.

If you need to process text, this is a great book!.......2005-08-02

This book is not for everyone, but for "text processing", I know of nothing else that comes close; this book merits careful study. Note that "text processing" would include many web applications -- http is a text driven protocol. Do not be put off by the first chapter! It is the most abstract of any book I have read in decades. As the book says, you can skip it if it is a problem for you. As an illustration of how good this book is, I am now using regular expressions (selectively), and this was only possible with the help if this book! (If you do not even know what regular expressions are, you have not completed Text Processing 1.01.)

Very good, somewhat advanced.......2004-12-30

This book is not for novice programmers. However, if you are an reasonably experienced programmer in Python, or any other language for that matter, this book will serve you very well. Text processing is probably the most common use for Python.
Mertz is an exceptionally smart guy. A few of the things in this book were over my head, but most of it was not. He offers terrific insights into programming in general, and probably the best Python overview / tutorial I have ever seen (in one of the Appendices).

Regular Expression Pocket Reference: Regular Expressions for Perl, Ruby, PHP, Python, C, Java and .NET (Pocket Reference (O'Reilly))

Average customer rating:

if you know reg exps and switch languages a lot...
Easy to use due to excellent organiztion
Excellent concise reference for regular expressions
Second Edition Arrives
Handy compilation of regex

Regular Expression Pocket Reference: Regular Expressions for Perl, Ruby, PHP, Python, C, Java and .NET (Pocket Reference (O'Reilly))
Tony Stubblebine
Manufacturer: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0596514271

Book Description

This handy little book offers programmers a complete overview of the syntax and semantics of regular expressions that are at the heart of every text-processing application. Ideal as a quick reference, Regular Expression Pocket Reference covers the regular expression APIs for Perl 5.8, Ruby (including some upcoming 1.9 features), Java, PHP, .NET and C#, Python, vi, JavaScript, and the PCRE regular expression libraries.

This concise and easy-to-use reference puts a very powerful tool for manipulating text and data right at your fingertips. Composed of a mixture of symbols and text, regular expressions can be an outlet for creativity, for brilliant programming, and for the elegant solution. Regular Expression Pocket Reference offers an introduction to regular expressions, pattern matching, metacharacters, modes and constructs, and then provides separate sections for each of the language APIs, with complete regex listings including:

Supported metacharacters for each language API
Regular expression classes and interfaces for Ruby, Java, .NET, and C#
Regular expression operators for Perl 5.8
Regular expression module objects and functions for Python
Pattern-matching functions for PHP and the vi editor
Pattern-matching methods and objects for JavaScript
Unicode Support for each of the languages

With plenty of examples and other resources, Regular Expression Pocket Reference summarizes the complex rules for performing this critical text-processing function, and presents this often-confusing topic in a friendly and well-organized format. This guide makes an ideal on-the-job companion.

Customer Reviews:

if you know reg exps and switch languages a lot..........2007-08-20

"Regular Expression - Pocket Reference" is just as high in quality as it's big brother ("Mastering Regular Expressions.")

The book begins with a very brief review of regular expression concepts and patterns. For each language/tool, the book includes tables to reference the metacharacters, a reference for the API/syntax/library and four examples. A few of the languages have additional examples tailored specifically to that language.

The languages/tools included are: Perl, Java, .NET, PHP, Python, Ruby, JavaScript, PCRE, Apache Web Server, vi and awk/sed/egrep. If you use a number of these, the book is a concise reference. If you only use one, you would be better served by printing out the relevant reference charts from the website of your language of choice.

If you are learning about regular expressions or only going to buy one regular expressions book, I recommend the "Mastering Regular Expressions." If you are knowledgeable about regular expressions and just need a review or reference, this book does the job nicely.

Easy to use due to excellent organiztion.......2007-07-30

This book is the best reference for regular expressions. The second edition came out in July 2007 and has several updates over the previous version. The reason for the books ease-of-use lies in the organization. The chapters represent one language each. For each language, listings of the meta-characters and examples are shown. Depending on the language being displayed, there are other subjects covered such as unicode support, object orientation, and different topics unique to the language. The primary parsing engine is listed at the beggining of the chapters with the examples arranged at the ends of the chapters. I generally need to look up expression for JavaScript and [...]. Both of these are covered plus perl, java, php, python, ruby, pcre, apache, vi and shells. I just bookmark the 2 areas I need and I can lookup the expression listing in a few seconds.

Excellent concise reference for regular expressions.......2007-07-27

This is a handy little guide for common regular expression fundamentals and odds and ends. The intro chapter does a nice job of giving you the regex elevator speech and hits all the important fundamentals: different engines, metacharacters, and general pattern rules. There's also a regex "Cookbook" section; however, that bit is only two pages and the "recipes" there are so rudimentary that they're nearly useless and would have been better left to a different book.

The remaining chapters hit regex support in major languages, Apache, shells, and Vi and Vim editors. These sections are very well done and give you great guidance to regex implementations on that platform, plus give you guidance on the APIs you'll need for working with regexes. Languages covered include Perl 5.8, Java 1.5/1.6, .NET framework with examples in C#, PHP, Python, Ruby, Python and JavaScript. The Perl Compatible Regular Expression library (PCRE) is also covered.

Each chapter is concise, well-written and hits the major things you'll need to refresh your memory on from time to time.

Overall it's a very well done book.

Second Edition Arrives.......2007-07-26

§
Gawd, I hate doing regular expressions. Don't you? As far as I am concerning, any help is good help.

The new edition adds sections on Ruby and Apache web server and a few updates on previous existing language content.

One of the best things about this book is that the author synchs the content with the authoritative reference Mastering Regular Expressions. In a welcome convenience, the author provides page references to that book to point to elaboration.

One section of the book I really liked (but wished was much more extensive) contained 2 pages of cookbook examples. Learning by example is easier for most of us. It would have been nice to have many more practical examples, esp. regarding Web applications.
§

Handy compilation of regex.......2007-06-06

This reference book is very handy for anyone doing text manipulation.

With this book you don't need to be constant user of regular expressions to take advantage to their robust abilities.

Average customer rating:

Text Processing in Python
DAVID MERTZ
Manufacturer: Addison-Wesley Professional
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OUCVJY

Average customer rating:

Text Processing in Python
David Mertz
Manufacturer: ADDISON WESLEY PROF
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000K719N0

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