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

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28 Reviews

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The editorial blurb on this book suggests that it can be used as a tutorial by those new to regular expressions. That's not the case. This book is strictly a reference, albeit a very good one. I bought O'Reilly's "Mastering Regular Expressions" to learn the area, and I use this book as a quick reference. It serves that purpose very well.

I love this series of books (the C#, C++ and STL pocket refs are my favorite), but the Regular Expression pocket ref tries to cover too many implementations. You only get about 10 pages for each language so, unless you use multiple implementations (e.g. C#/.NET, Perl, JavaScript, etc), this just isn't good value for money. I returned my copy and printed out a quick reference from one of the many Internet programming sites.

One of the most difficult things when working with regular expressoins -- at least for me -- is dealing with different implementations (i.e., Perl, Java, Python, PHP, UNIX tools, etc.) The basics of regexes and pattern matching don't vary all that much, but each implementation is just different enough that the smae line of code can yield different results. If you work with more than one of these implementations, keeping track of differences in metacharacters and metasequences can be nearly impossible. This is especially true when -- as is the case with me -- you deal with regexes somewhat intermittently.

This is one of the main reasons why the "Regular Expression Pocket Reference"
was written and this is why I keep it close at hand. This book will not really teach you how to use regexes, nor will it tell you how to use, say, Perl. If, however, you use Perl and you know how to use regexes but just can't remember whether you can disallow backtracking for text matched by a subpattern, then this book will save you quite a bit of time and effort.

If you're wondering what it means to "disallow backtracking for text matched by a subpattern," or when you would want to use it, buy "Mastering Regular Expressions" or a similar title. The "Regular Expression Pocket Reference" is designed to be a quick reference tool, and it serves this purpose very well. I would recommend it especially for those who work with regular expressions intermittently or who work with several different implementations.

It's nearly impossible to memorize all the minutiae of regular expressions, especially over multiple language implementations. Tony Stubblebine's book Regular Expression Pocket Reference by O'Reilly is a nice way to help you out without digging through endless pages.

Chapter List: About This Book; Introduction To Regexes And Pattern Matching; Perl 5.8; Java (java.util.regex); .NET And C#; Python; PCRE Lib; PHP; vi Editor; JavaScript; Shell Tools; Index

Like most pocket references, this book is small (93 pages), but there's a lot of information packed into a small space. Each implementation chapter covers the metacharacters and metasequences that are supported in the language's implementation of regular expressions. This is followed by the language functions, examples of regular expressions, and a list of additional resources the reader can use to learn more about regular expressions in that language. If you don't know anything about the subject, this book (in my opinion) isn't going to help you out much. It assumes that you already understand the material and you're looking for a reference guide to find quick answers. And that's fine. This book has a definite purpose and target audience, and I think it does a very nice job of hitting the mark.

For me, this would be a perfect companion book to Mastering Regular Expressions (also by O'Reilly). Mastering is considered one of the definitive volumes on the subject, and having this pocket guide on hand to jog your memory on lesser-used points would be perfect.

Nice cut and paste of the Ann Coulter book review. I particularly liked the "Menckenesque invective" comment which made me think that I had remembered reading it somewhere before. Anyway, I just wanted the readers of these reviews to know not to trust that one. Some people actually use these reviews to make a choice and avoid wasting money.

If you've ever picked up a copy of O'Reilly's Mastering Regular Expressions, then you'll feel right at home with this book. The Pocket Reference is all about usability, and this book is no exception. If you've never seen Mastering Regular Expressions, then this book takes the most important aspects of that book into about 80 pages.

This book is basically divided into various languages (Perl, C, Java, C#) with examples on how to use regular expressions with each language. In addition to discussing the built-in language specific functions that you should use, there is discussion on the differences and nuances to using regular expressions in the specific language.

If you need a desktop quick reference on regular expressions, then I would highly recommend this book. I have it next to my desk with the .NET section bookmarked. If you need something with a little more depth and explanation, then I would suggest picking up a copy of O'Reilly's Mastering Regular Expressions.

I recommend getting this book
if you feel comfortable with regular expressions
and regular expressions are important to you.

As one expects from an O'Reilly Pocket Reference,
this book is compact but still covers a lot of ground.
For a whole bunch of applications, it provides:
* tables of various groupings of regex metacharacters,
summarizing their syntax and meaning;
* summaries of other regex related features,
but not in tabular form;
* examples;
* a few references in case you need to go deeper.

The information is concise and well chosen.

This is a reference,
but in applications where you use regular expressions less,
it may also be useful for expanding your knowledge significantly.
It was for me.

If you wish, take a look at my
more detailed review on Oakland Perl Mongers.

This is not a learning text by any stretch of the imagination. Covering the basic implementation of Regular Expressions in Perl, Java, .NET, C#, Python, PCRE, PHP, vi Editor, JavaScript, and a few shell utilities, this title is well suited as a quick "cheat sheet" for those already familiar, often providing the required information in just the "Supported Metacharacters" section.

Although around 90 (small) pages, the book repeats the same 8-page sequence for each of the aforementioned languages, tweaked as needed. Although handy for those that regularly use multiple languages, the book's format could have been made more efficient.

Those looking for just an as-needed reminder, this title meets your needs. For those looking to learn Regular Expressions, Mastering Regular Expressions (3rd Edition) by Jeffrey Friedl (ISBN: 0596528124) is where you should start.

This is an ideal pcoket reference for people who need to lookup the details of regular expression syntax. This is not for people who know nothing about regular expressions.

Based on the .NET chapter it would appear that the author tackled too many implementations. It looked like all of the .NET stuff came from the SDK, sans discussion & examples.

Developers worrying about an expression to be executed on several different platforms might find this type of overview helpful. How many folks do that though?

"Regular Expression Pocket Reference" is one of the hottest and most controversial books of the year! Stubblebine is a fluent polemicist with a gift for the Menckenesque invective...and he can harness such language to subtle, syllogistic argument.
Written with a great deal of passion, the real source of this book's strength - and it's usefulness - was it's painstaking marshalling of evidence. This has got to be the most popular nonfiction book in America.
More important that Stubblebine's other works, "Clown management for midgets", this book addresses the much broader issues of Java and Perl and even delves into the murky recesses of C#.
Read it! Live it!

I'm scared of regular expressions. They vex me constantly at work whether trying to figure out someone else's Apache RewriteRules or Perl or just trying myself to do mildly clever things in vi and sed. They are a headache.

A coworker let me browse his copy of this wonderful little book and I was hooked. I actually tried to buy one that day on the way home, but they were out of stock and so I permitted Amazon to ship me one.

In addition to brief explanations of the different types of regexes in the wild (based on the comprehensive Mastering title, also from ORA), there are detailed quick references to all of the different implementations including several common languages (Perl, PHP, C#, and several others) and software packages (including sed, Apache, vi and many others). All of their various quicks and "features" are explained briefly and there are some examples.

No one hacking around in Unix or doing much programming should be without this book, unless they are already a regex wizard, and I think even they'd find it handy.

Pocket references are not meant to teach you anything from the beginning, but to be everyday references in known and new environments. In other words, if you don't know regular expressions, then go to "Mastering Regular Expressions". If you're still here, then you'll get a cheat sheet on steroids for languages ranging from bug-prone JavaScript to the King and Queen of robustness, Perl and Python. Although everything claims to be PCRE these days, particular examples in every language available is a plus for anyone. A must for any type of user input validation.

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.

I've been programming with perl for seven years. I've always found it cumbersome trying to remember everything that regular expressions have to offer. Since I have purchased Regular Expression Pocket Reference I no longer have this problem. This book has been a tremendous help to me in utilizing the true power of regular expressions.
The explanations and examples are exceptionally clear and easy to comprehend. The book has improved my programming capabilities while making my job easier. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is required to use regular expressions or to the newbie who wants to learn how.

"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.

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.

I totally love this little book! I love how the author cross-references with the Regular Expressions book, it makes getting into the gory details much easier.

This book is perfect for people like me who are always forgetting the little details about regular expressions.

If you program in Perl, PHP, Python, C or Java, I can't recommend this book enough! This book will definitely pay for itself quickly.

Nice compendium, flip thru this before tackling Friedl's Reg Ex book. Pocket refs're 7" high, <100 pages, so there's lots that could be added, some things to cut out.

- hilite significant diffs betw perl 5.8 & other regex modules e.g. MatchEvaluator delegates, or PHP's /U modifier. In particular, compare perl, java.util.regex & C#.

- either add emacs, or cut out vi. If you keep vi, hilite diffs betw vim & vi.

- mention performance issues (grouping, lookbehinds, stuff like that)

- mention deprecated modules to avoid: python regex, PHP's ereg_ functions

Aside from that, it's nice to have a portable summary of perl, python, C#, java and PHP, along with refs to Friedl's book.

It is a very good guide. But I have to borrow the notes in the Vi section to use it with sed when I need to use a Regex.

A more practical guide on regex's and shell scripting would be better!

Most developers know how to write regular expressions, almost none of them can read them. And if you are saying that you can. Well congratulations to you. You are one of the 0.1% of developers that can or you are one of those who think they can.

The books physical appearance is so compact that it has become a permanent item on my working desk. And is often used.

You know those times when you know what you want to do, but are not sure of the correct form, this is the book to grab. It has been my book to grab as a reference rather than trying to find the right language book. This is not the book to learn the language from, however. You will find your copy will be well worn if you do lots of coding.

From the back cover of the Regular Expression Pocket Reference: "Ideal as a quick reference..." and "... makes an ideal on-the-job companion." All this is true if you are well-versed in regular expressions and use multiple programming languages (and confuse the syntax).

I like the use of the same examples across programming languages (where applicable).

The recipes in the cookbook section are great, although I would have liked to see additional recipes (like stripping HTML tags, matching credit card numbers etc...). Of course the examples are endless and over time one builds his/her own recipe collection. At least this is a good place to start.

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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.
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Trying to remember the subtleties of all of the different implementations of regex is no longer a problem with this around. Whip it out and instantly you've got access to all of the meta-characters, etc., etc., etc.

What more can I say?

One of the better OReilly books. Very well written, great examples and explanations. I highly recommend.

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.

I found this guide very useful. I learned a whole slew of new expressions to incorporate into my everyday vocabulary. To think, I'd been wasting my time saying things like, "Wicked cool!".

Stubblebine gives it to you in an easy-to-understand format. If he had other books I'd buy them (plus, I understand from some women in the geek community that he's a total babe!). Two thumbs up!