Regular Expression Pocket Reference (Paperback)

by Tony Stubblebine (Author)
Key Phrases: regex metacharacters, shell tools, thany times, Sequence Meaning, Regular Expression Pocket Reference Table, Class Meaning (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Ideal as an introduction for beginners and a quick reference for advanced programmers, Regular Expression Pocket Reference is a comprehensive guide to regular expression APIs for C, Perl, PHP, Java, .NET, Python, vi, and the POSIX regular expression libraries. This book offers programmers a complete overview of the syntax and semantics of regular expressions, which are at the heart of every text-processing application. O'Reilly's Pocket References have become a favorite among programmers everywhere. By providing a wealth of important details in a concise, well-organized format, these handy books deliver just what you need to complete the task at hand. When you've reached a sticking point and need to get to a solution quickly, the new Regular Expression Pocket Reference is the book you'll want to have.

About the Author
Tony Stubblebine, writes Perl and regular expressions for O'Reilly. Previously he held the titles of Web Peasant and Rogue Developer while hacking Perl for MasterCard International. He is also the Social Director and Senior Nightlife Correspondent for the O'Reilly Network.

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.; 1st edition (May 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 059600415X
• ISBN-13: 978-0596004156
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #105,148 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A review of "Regular Expression Pocket Reference", July 12, 2005

By	G. Roush (Des Moines, IA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great reference, but not a tutorial, November 20, 2003

By	David C. Veeneman (Lincolnshire, IL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Too many implementations covered, December 15, 2003

By	"mark_seattle" (Kirkland, WA United States) - See all my reviews

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.