

Headache relief for programmers: Regular expression generator  - edw519
http://www.txt2re.com/index-python.php3

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huhtenberg
This solves a non-existing problem. Regexps are hardly a "headache" for any
reasonably good programmer.

This is also a dupe - <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=149631>

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mwmanning
Maybe I'm not a "reasonably good" programmer, but I use this tool all the
time. Lots of languages have little re nuances that may be hard to remember.

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mojuba
This kind of a UI looks like a bigger headache to me...

REs are easier to write than to understand. It would be great to have a tool
that visualizes existing REs, I think.

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paulgb
> It would be great to have a tool that visualizes existing REs, I think.

This one is pretty cool to play around with, not sure how useful it is in
practice though: <http://osteele.com/tools/reanimator/>

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asnyder
RegEx Buddy (<http://www.regexbuddy.com>) is also pretty good. It breaks down
the regex into its parts in an intuitive interface. Furthermore, it allows you
to easily switch between the various regex styles, along with its platform
specific variation.

It's also great for deciphering expressions long forgotten, definitely a
lifesaver.

~~~
paulgb
RegEx buddy is great, it's well worth the money if you are doing lots of
regular expressions. I had to give it up when I switched to Ubuntu (though
apparently it works ok under wine).

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tokipin
what about a tool that you enter 'instances' in (say, a few examples of valid
email addresses) and it gives you the most specific regex that matches all of
them

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rickmb
Oh come on, this so takes the fun out of hacking regexs.

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xlnt
how about a regex _maintainer_. it's no problem to write one in the first
place.

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jmagar
You sir, hit the nail on the head! We need the exact opposite: enter a regex
pattern, and a sample string... then fire up a similar GUI to tweak the
expression until it's working again.

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newt0311
Agreed. Regexs are not very difficult to write if one is a good programmer and
understands what they are searching for.

