I deal with regex enough to need to know a beginning to intermediate level of knowledge, but I don’t use it enough to be able to form regex statements without thinking. Or in load balancing terms, it’s not burned into my brain ASIC. Every time I do regex, I’m doing it purely in software.
So what’s a part-time regex’r to do? Like any good professional, I cheat. I use a great little tool called Regex Coach.
It’s great little graphical tool that lets you take an example string and test (in real time) your regex statement.
It handles splits, fields, and all of the other regex madness that you might need help with.
Update: Reader Jason Williams pointed out another great little Regex tool called Kodos. Similar in function, it’s got some neat features like automatic code generation.
Nice find, Tony. Know what I *really* like about this software? It was written in LISP, which as all of us who’ve had the (mis)fortune of being educated in the language knows stands for “Lots of Idiotic Stupid Parentheses”.
Seriously, the language is so rarely used that I get excited to see it “in the wild”. The last time I saw it (and coded in it) was for AutoDesk’s AutoCAD r13 in the mid 90′s.
Lori
Another good one that’s also cross-platform and free is Kodos: http://kodos.sourceforge.net/