
ReFiddle: Fiddle for Regexp testing - tilt
http://refiddle.com/
======
obeattie
Would be great if there were support for more Regex types. All those supported
by grep (ie. BRE, PRE, PCRE) seem fairly essential – and being a Python guy,
Python would be nice too (which are PCRE-ish).

Nice work, though.

~~~
StavrosK
I will second a Python vote.

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damncabbage
Nice work! :)

<http://rubular.com> is also a good one (Ruby regexes).

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mtrn
Rubular is great - I like their UI better than the one of the
[js|re]Fiddle[s]?.

~~~
dave1010uk
Perhaps you mean:

    
    
        (js|re)?Fiddles?

~~~
RegEx
I don't know, I'm pretty fond of |Fiddle myself ;)

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dfc
If you are looking for a command line regexp builder I highly recommend
txt2regex. It is a giant bash script so it runs anywhere bash does and
supports:

    
    
      a) +awk                                m) +mysql 
      b) +ed                                 n) +ooo 
      c) +egrep                              o) +perl 
      d) +emacs                              p) +php 
      e) +expect                             q) +postgres 
      f) +find                               r) +procmail 
      g) +gawk                               s) +python 
      h) +grep                               t) +sed 
      i) +javascript                         u) +tcl 
      j) +lex                                v) +vbscript 
      k) +lisp                               w) +vi 
      l) +mawk                               x) +vim 
    
    

<http://aurelio.net/txt2regex/>

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henriks
I'll go ahead and recommend RegexBuddy (<http://www.regexbuddy.com/>) as
another useful tool for testing regexes. (No affiliation, this just happens to
be one of the most useful programs I've bought with my own money.)

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henrikschroder
I was gonna recommend this as well, then I saw your comment, and then I saw
your username, and then it got _really weird_.

~~~
philbarr
Don't you hate it when you make a comment through an old HN account and then
completely forget about it and post through your normal HN account a quarter
of an hour later?

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gojomo
My entry into this category:

<http://regex.powertoy.org/>

It makes use of a hidden Java applet -- so it supports the somewhat larger
Java regex syntax, doesn't send your data anywhere else for matching, and can
hook into the string-probing to animate the process. (Click the 'animate?'
link to show the animation step/speed controls.)

For example, you can watch the regex that tests whether a number is prime (by
failing) or composite (by succeeding) via these two animations:

49:
[http://regex.powertoy.org/?pat=/^1%3F%24|^%2811+%3F%29\1+%24...](http://regex.powertoy.org/?pat=/^1%3F%24|^%2811+%3F%29\\1+%24/&syn=perlSyntax&anim=1&rep=&in=1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111)

47:
[http://regex.powertoy.org/?pat=/^1%3F%24|^%2811+%3F%29\1+%24...](http://regex.powertoy.org/?pat=/^1%3F%24|^%2811+%3F%29\\1+%24/&syn=perlSyntax&anim=1&rep=&in=11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111)

Is the applet requirement a deal-breaker for casual use? I might be able to
feed the OpenJDK 7 regex classes through the Google Java->JS cross-compiler to
get a pure-JS solution with the same syntax/animation capabilities.

~~~
zitterbewegung
I don't think its a deal breaker but if its a hidden java applet then why not
have the regexes processed on the server as a servlet and sandbox them with a
timeout?

~~~
gojomo
That could work, but an original design goal was to avoid server dependencies
or bottlenecks.

For instant display or the stepwise animation, the lag of a server roundtrip
could be a problem; for some users, posting data to a remote service might
introduce privacy concerns. (The regex-powertoy can be run completely
locally.)

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bloblaw
I've used lots of regex tools over the years, but I stopped looking once I
bought RegexBuddy.

See a demo: <http://www.regexbuddy.com/demotest.html>

It's a Windows program, but runs on Linux via WINE. It lets you debug regexes,
has live highlighting of matched text, generates regex code in 15+ languages
(Perl, Python, Ruby, PHP, C, C#, C++, Delphi, Java, Javascript, MySQL, etc)
and is all around awesome.

I'm not affiliated with this program, but it is the _BEST_ regex
creation/testing program available anywhere.

It _will_ save you oodles of time if you create (or debug) regular expressions
more than 2 times in a year. It's the best software product I've ever bought
with my own money.

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Flenser
Some other online regex tools that you may find useful depending you what
flavour of regex you want to create and how proficient you are with them:

• <http://www.rexv.org/> — Supports: PCRE, Posix, Perl, Python, JS, Node.js
modifiers. Only works online though.

• <http://gskinner.com/RegExr/> — Implemented in Flash. Desktop version
available.

• <http://regexpal.com/> — Javascript regex only.

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vanmik
The best tools out there for regexp testing is <http://gskinner.com/RegExr/>
\- the only flash application i've ever used

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danbee
Rex V (<http://www.rexv.org/>) is my current favourite regex playground.

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thomasbachem
Awesome! I'm however unable to make negative lookaheads and lookbehinds work
right now – though Ruby & .NET are said to support them according to
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_regular_expressio...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_regular_expression_engines).

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chrismckee
This regex creator is one I've used for ages; its a bit ugly but it generates
the regex for Perl PHP Python Java Javascript ColdFusion C C++ Ruby VB
VBScript J#.net C#.net C++.net VB.net. You type an example (or the actual)
string you plan to search over, click submit and it generates a weird chart
that you can use to select which bits you want your regex to find. Really
advise giving it ago; no regex knowledge required and more importantly.. fast.

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regexplanet
I too have a website that does regex testing. It supports Java, JavaScript,
.Net, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby & XRegExp, though some are more complete than
others.

And it supports sharing & a cookbook too.

<http://www.regexplanet.com/>

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draegtun
For a CLI debugger/play-through have a look at Regexp::Debugger (I posted this
video link yesterday - <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4136179>)

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FreshCode
More contrast, please. I can barely see the green matches on my screen.

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drivingmenuts
I've always been a fan of Reginald (<http://atastypixel.com/blog/reginald-
regex-explorer/>) on OS X.

~~~
captnswing
I can totally recommend Patterns, with support for java, python, ruby etc

[http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/patterns-the-regex-
app/id4294...](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/patterns-the-regex-
app/id429449079?mt=12)

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john2x
I've been using RegExr[1]. It's Flash/Flex, the "Community" tab is useful for
finding common RegEx's.

[1] <http://gskinner.com/RegExr>

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esschul
I use sublime text for this. Considering how many regexes I write a day, I
actually need a text editor that has this support. Don't you ? :)

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MatthewPhillips
No. Regexes are a hack. I don't write them every day, I write them when I need
a hack to get around a problem there isn't a good solution for.

~~~
esschul
Why do you say regex's are hacks? Aren't they nice to use in order to search
and replace text? It's really powerful!

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tonyz
If you work with .NET regex, I recommend <http://regexhero.net/>

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nicpottier
Very nice, please add Java and Python support, but otherwise really dig it..
the tests are especially neat.

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rkwz
<http://www.regexpal.com/> is a good alternative too

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boatmeme
Nice work! It sure do got a purty mouth.

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bpierre
Cool! Is the code open source?

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silverlight
You are my hero.

