Rating:  - A Black-Art Demystified!
I don't know about you, but in over 20 years of Unix use and work, I've always had a "problem" with regex. Yes, regular expressions are ANYTHING but "regular!" ...except that the notion extends to parsing text for patterns that are common.
Using regular expressions has always been a hurdle for me. I mean, you HAVE to be able to manage them at least a little in order to be proficient with Unix, but Mastering them, that's another story entirely. Jeff's (if I may call him Jeff) book is stellar. It reads easily and provides meaningful topics on using regex to your advantage.
I can't say enough about how well put-together this book is for the average person. Every topic is clearly visited and the discussion is pleasantly light and, at the same time, technically concise so as to provide real, useful help to using regular expressions. Here is an example:
"Mimicking atomic grouping with positive lookahead"
I consider this book to be a "brain dump" by perhaps the most accomplished regex guy in the industry. In the best of O'Reilly traditions, the book is very well laid out and presented. The quality of editing and "fit-n-finish" of the book are representative of this 3rd Edition.
If you encounter Regular Expressions in your work or as a hobbyist, this book shines a light into the darkness that opens the world of regex to you. It has been very practical and useful for me and it has really helped me be a much better regexer!
Rating: - Fantastic
Well written, informative, and surprisingly accessible. I have some great new tools to do my work efficiently.
Rating: - Good guide to regular expressions in all kinds of situations
This book is about a very powerful programming tool. Most documentation that mentions regular expressions doesn't even begin to hint at their power, but this book is about mastering regular expressions. Regular expressions are available in many types of tools such as editors, word processors, system tools, and database engines, but their power is most fully exposed when available as part of a programming language. Examples include Java, Visual Basic, Perl, VBScript, JavaScript, sed, and awk. Regular expressions are the very heart of many programs written in some of these languages.
This book will interest anyone who has an opportunity to use regular expressions. If you don't yet understand the power that regular expressions can provide, you should benefit greatly as a whole new world is opened up to you. This book should expand your understanding, even if you consider yourself an accomplished regular expression expert. Programmers working on text-related tasks, such as web programming, will find a gold mine of detail, hints, tips, and understanding that can be put to immediate use. I've not found this level of detail and thoroughness in any other book.
Regular expressions are an idea that is implemented in various ways by various utilities. If you master the general concept of regular expressions, you'll find it easier to use a particular implementation. This book concentrates on that idea, so most of the knowledge presented here transcends the utilities and languages used to present the examples. You'll probably get the most out of this book by reading the first six chapters in sequence. The last four chapters cover regular expression specifics of Perl, Java, .NET, and PHP, and here is where you can skip around based on your need.
Chapter 1, Introduction to Regular Expressions, is geared toward the complete novice. It introduces the concept of regular expressions using the widely available program egrep, and offers the author's perspective on how to think regular expressions, instilling a solid foundation for the advanced concepts presented in later chapters. Even readers with prior experience would do well to skim this first chapter.
Chapter 2, Extended Introductory Examples, looks at real text processing in a programming language that has regular expression support. The additional examples provide a basis for the detailed discussions of later chapters, and show additional important thought processes behind crafting advanced regular expressions. To provide a feel for how to "speak in regular expressions," this chapter takes a problem requiring an advanced solution and shows ways to solve it using two unrelated regular-expression-wielding tools.
Chapter 3, Overview of Regular Expression Features and Flavors, provides an overview of the wide range of regular expressions commonly found in tools today. Due to their turbulent history, current commonly-used regular expression flavors can differ greatly. This chapter also takes a look at a bit of the history and evolution of regular expressions and the programs that use them. The end of this chapter also contains a guide to the advanced chapters. This guide is your road map to getting the most out of the advanced material that follows
Chapter 4, The Mechanics of Expression Processing, ratchets up the pace several notches and begins the central core of this book. It looks at the important inner workings of how regular expression engines really work from a practical point of view. Understanding the details of how regular expressions are handled goes a very long way toward allowing you to master them. The next chapter puts that knowledge to high-level, practical use. Common but complex problems are explored in detail, all with the aim of expanding and deepening your regular expression experience. Chapter 6 looks at the real-life efficiency ramifications of the regular expressions available to most programming languages. This chapter puts information detailed in Chapters 4 and 5 to use for exploiting an engine's strengths and stepping around its weaknesses.
Chapter 7 closely examines regular expressions in Perl, arguably the most popular regular expression-laden programming language in use today. It has only four operators related to regular expressions, but their myriad of options and special situations provides an extremely rich set of programming options and pitfalls. The very richness that allows the programmer to move quickly from concept to program can be a minefield for the uninitiated. This detailed chapter clears a path.
Chapter 8, on regular expressions in Java, looks in detail at the java.util.regex regular expression package, a standard part of the language since Java 1.4. The chapter's primary focus is on Java 1.5, but differences in both Java 1.4.2 and Java 1.6 are noted. Chapter 9 contains the documentation for the .NET regular expression library that Microsoft neglected to provide. This chapter provides the details you need to employ .NET regular-expressions to the fullest regardless of what base language you're working in. Chapter 10 provides a short introduction to the multiple regex engines embedded within PHP, followed by a detailed look at the flavor and API of its regex suite, powered under the hood by the PCRE regex library.
Overall, this is a very complete guide to regular expressions with plenty of examples and I highly recommend it.
Rating:  - Best Title on the Subject
If you have ever been frustrated trying to figure out Regular Expressions (RegEx) based only on a table showing symbols and a few paragraphs of explanations obviously written by someone who assumes you are already familiar with the concept, then this book is for you. Don't be daunted by 480+ page size of this title; before you reach the end of chapter 2 you find yourself with a solid understanding of the concepts, structure, syntax and "keywords" in common use by those utilities, programming languages and applications that incorporate RegExs. The middle of the book covers implementation of RegEx in different environments, techniques for creating the expressions, and methods for creating efficient expressions. The end chapters are specific for Perl, Java, VB.NET and PHP users.
The only minor issues I had was in the tools used to demonstrate the concepts. Although no tool used cost the reader money if they wish to hands-on follow along, some of the downloads are from third-party sites which have no guarantee of offering the download by the time you get the book. Additionally, the author makes heavy use of Perl to demonstrate RegEx in scripting, which is fine for Perl users, but those that use other languages to fend for themselves. Seeing additional examples in other free languages, such as VBScript or JScript would have been nice.
Overall, Mastering Regular Expressions is an excellent choice for both learning the basics as well as better preparing yourself to apply them in real-world situations. The writing style is easy to understand and follow, and the layout allows this book to be a learning resource now, and a decent general reference later.
Rating: - Thorough Regex book
This book is an invaluable resource. I learned more than I wanted to know about regex after reading this book. The authors breaks things down to the smallest detail and discusses each aspect. He covers regular expressions, their engines, their use, and some tips and tricks without losing the reader.
If you are just learning regex, I don't recommend this book - but if you know a little and want to take your regex to the next step, this is the book for you!
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