Rating:  - Great Regex Book
I have known about regular expressions for a long time, but they have always been some kind of mysterious secret code. Recently I was reading something else that pointed out the power of regular expressions, so I decided it was time to learn regular expressions once and for all. After reviewing the available books on Amazon, I chose this one. I was not disappointed.
After reading just the first few chapters, I have been able to put them to work and make my life a lot easier. As a software engineer, I'm always doing searches through code or search/replace operations. I am now able to do more precise searches and do search/replace operations I never dreamed were possible before.
Learn regular expressions now! Get this book!
Rating: - The Bible Of Regular Expressions
Back in 2000 I had to complete some task and another engineer said "Use a Regular Expression". Ignorant of what a regular expression was, I got a quick explanation from the programmer who brought it up, and then I quickly got Perl to do what I needed, learning how powerful regular expressions are. Regular expressions are like that magical elixir, that wonderful little secret that was created to fix specific little problems, and man when you need them, they do the job better than almost any other.
If you are reading this review, you probably have some background as to what regular expressions are, but in a nutshell, they quickly let you find a particular search string and then modify it as needed. Regular expressions have their own ruleset as to how these searches/replacements are performed, and in order to learn how to write good RegExs, you need the book 'Mastering Regular Expressions'. You will not find a Regular Expression reference as good as this book by Jeffery Friedl, and I challenge you to look for yourself!
If you ever need to parse through a lot of data, whether it be logs or just finding a particular piece of code, you will save yourself a lot of time and gain much in performance by learning how to use Regular Expressions to accomplish the task(s) at hand. Having this book by your side will make that journey all the easier, and you will find lots of great examples pre-written, and new approaches as to how to write better RegExs to complete your tasks by having this text by your side. It's binary folks, if you use RegExs in your line of work, you need this book, you will not be let down!!
***** HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION
Rating:  - A detailed view of the inner working of regular expressions
How come a technology that is as old as computers themselves is still around? Regular expressions solve one of the most basic problems in computer science: parsing strings.
There is no doubt that regular expressions are beasts. This will will demystify them. By understanding them, you will be less scared of using them. This book does just that. However, the level of this book is high and the level of details amazing. It is not a cook book so it would be wise to also read another book that gives you more examples. This particular book is like the bible of regex. It needs to be in your library.
Rating: - Such a good resource on Regex.
If you are an experienced programmer, then you have undoubtedly heard of the power behind regular expressions. Unfortunately, even for seasoned developers, becoming very proficient in regular expressions is no trivial task... or is it? Sure most regular expressions look very arcane and are even harder to write, but luckily there is at least one good resource to help bend the learning curve. I am talking about Mastering Regular Expressions by Jeffrey Friedl. This book breaks down regex to such a trivial level that you can't help but learn how to harness the regex power. Jeff takes you step by step through regex land and holds your hand throughout the whole trip. Next thing you know, you will be crafting high quality regular expressions and you will learn how to truly harness such a powerful tool.
Unfortunately in every programmers life there are mental blocks that keep us from truly progressing. For some it's pointers or OOP concepts and for others such as myself its regular expressions. This book took that mental block and smashed it, then it paved the way to regex land. Now I feel much better! HIGHLY recommended!
Rating: - The book that got helped me get my start
Jeffrey Friedl is the man whom I credit for getting my start in computer programming. I even sent him a thank you letter after reading his first edition. Once you take the time to learn Regular Expressions, you'll often wonder how you got by without them. There is no better book to teach you than this one.
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