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Mastering Regular Expressions: Understand Your Data and Be More Productive 3rd Edition

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 336 ratings

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Regular expressions are an extremely powerful tool for manipulating text and data. They are now standard features in a wide range of languages and popular tools, including Perl, Python, Ruby, Java, VB.NET and C# (and any language using the .NET Framework), PHP, and MySQL.

If you don't use regular expressions yet, you will discover in this book a whole new world of mastery over your data. If you already use them, you'll appreciate this book's unprecedented detail and breadth of coverage. If you think you know all you need to know about regular expressions, this book is a stunning eye-opener.

As this book shows, a command of regular expressions is an invaluable skill. Regular expressions allow you to code complex and subtle text processing that you never imagined could be automated. Regular expressions can save you time and aggravation. They can be used to craft elegant solutions to a wide range of problems. Once you've mastered regular expressions, they'll become an invaluable part of your toolkit. You will wonder how you ever got by without them.

Yet despite their wide availability, flexibility, and unparalleled power, regular expressions are frequently underutilized. Yet what is power in the hands of an expert can be fraught with peril for the unwary. Mastering Regular Expressions will help you navigate the minefield to becoming an expert and help you optimize your use of regular expressions.

Mastering Regular Expressions, Third Edition, now includes a full chapter devoted to PHP and its powerful and expressive suite of regular expression functions, in addition to enhanced PHP coverage in the central "core" chapters. Furthermore, this edition has been updated throughout to reflect advances in other languages, including expanded in-depth coverage of Sun's java.util.regex package, which has emerged as the standard Java regex implementation.Topics include:

  • A comparison of features among different versions of many languages and tools
  • How the regular expression engine works
  • Optimization (major savings available here!)
  • Matching just what you want, but not what you don't want
  • Sections and chapters on individual languages

Written in the lucid, entertaining tone that makes a complex, dry topic become crystal-clear to programmers, and sprinkled with solutions to complex real-world problems, Mastering Regular Expressions, Third Edition offers a wealth information that you can put to immediate use.

Reviews of this new edition and the second edition:

"There isn't a better (or more useful) book available on regular expressions."

--Zak Greant, Managing Director, eZ Systems

"A real tour-de-force of a book which not only covers the mechanics of regexes in extraordinary detail but also talks about efficiency and the use of regexes in Perl, Java, and .NET...If you use regular expressions as part of your professional work (even if you already have a good book on whatever language you're programming in) I would strongly recommend this book to you."

--Dr. Chris Brown,
Linux Format

"The author does an outstanding job leading the reader from regex novice to master. The book is extremely easy to read and chock full of useful and relevant examples...Regular expressions are valuable tools that every developer should have in their toolbox. Mastering Regular Expressions is the definitive guide to the subject, and an outstanding resource that belongs on every programmer's bookshelf. Ten out of Ten Horseshoes."

--Jason Menard,
Java Ranch

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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jeffrey Friedl was raised in the countryside of Rootstown, Ohio, and had aspirations of being an astronomer until one day he noticed a TRS-80 Model I sitting unused in the corner of the chem lab (bristling with a full 16K of RAM, no less). He eventually began using Unix (and regular expressions) in 1980, and earned degrees in Computer Science from Kent (BS) and the University of New Hampshire (MS). He did kernel development for Omron Corporation in Kyoto, Japan for eight years before moving in 1997 to Silicon Valley to apply his regular-expression know-how to financial news and data for a little-known company called "Yahoo!"

When faced with the daunting task of filling his copious free time, Jeffrey enjoys playing Ultimate Frisbee and basketball with friends at Yahoo!, programming his house, and feeding the squirrels and jays in his back yard. He also enjoys spending time with his wife Fumie, and preparing for the Fall 2002 release of their first "software project" together.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ O'Reilly Media; 3rd edition (September 12, 2006)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 542 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0596528124
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0596528126
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.68 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7 x 1.3 x 9.19 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 336 ratings

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4.6 out of 5 stars
336 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book's concepts easy to understand and accessible. They find it a comprehensive guide to regular expressions that provides good information in an organized way. The book helps them get a good grasp on regex concepts and create their own regex.

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59 customers mention "Comprehension"53 positive6 negative

Customers find the book's concepts understandable and accessible. They say it provides good information, is organized well, and is a comprehensive guide to regular expressions. The book covers every nuance of a given regex and is thoroughly researched. It is an excellent reference for learning the basics as well as better preparing for advanced topics.

"...bringing it up, but even halfway through, my understanding of lookarounds increased substantially...." Read more

"...It's perfectly fine to pace yourself and take more time reading, because there's a lot of needed detail." Read more

"...The typographic conventions are nothing short of groundbreaking, and I believe there is no other volume out there, on the web, or written that does..." Read more

"...Overall, Mastering Regular Expressions is an excellent choice for both learning the basics as well as better preparing yourself to apply them in real..." Read more

9 customers mention "Regex knowledge"9 positive0 negative

Customers find the book helpful in learning about and creating their own Regex. They appreciate the comparison of different implementations and the progressive approach to explaining the concepts. The book also explains the operation of the regex search engine with examples.

"...I’m not quite halfway through and it has already increased my understanding of regex in ways I hadn’t imagined possible...." Read more

"...confidently say that I'm 1000% more comfortable reading and creating my own regex...." Read more

"...You'll find that it is throughly researched, every nuance of a given regex implementation of the four featured languages (Perl, Java, ASP and PHP)..." Read more

"...I liked the comparing and contrasting between the various RegEx implementations. I had a difficult time digesting some of the detail...." Read more

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1 out of 5 stars
expressions not displaying properly on kindle
so far on the kindle reader on my ipad, desktop and iphone some of the expressions do not display correctly. something about the formatting does not display right and i have to copy paste into a notepad in order to see it correctly. this is highly annoying. i have not tried my kindle paperwhite.
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2022
    Most regex books, blogs, websites, tutorials and classes cover “just the basics” really. Even the ones that say “advanced” often barely get into lookarounds.

    This book is the definitive guide on regex. Full stop. I’m not quite halfway through and it has already increased my understanding of regex in ways I hadn’t imagined possible. That said, the 3rd edition is 16 years old and it shows. The author regularly references now out-of-date technologies (e.g., PHP and Tcl). But that in no way hampers his ability to teach and ingrain the material. One just simply needs to understand that due to its age, some claims may no longer be true.

    For example, (and bare in mind I’m halfway through so I don’t know what I don’t yet know) there’s a chart stating that MySQL’s regex engine is a DFA. From what I’ve read, and knowing that MySQL “upgraded” their regex support in version 8, I believe it may now be an NFA. Or, at the very least, a hybrid. I could be wrong, but the point is, before reading this book, I wouldn’t have understood enough to even make that guess.

    Now, will I skip the chapters that focus on PHP and Tcl? Perhaps the latter. It’s not like I can’t come back and read it later if I find myself ankle-deep in Tcl regex one day. I could say the same for PHP, but it’s in a lot of legacy software, so a quick read through it is probably worthwhile.

    Not to keep bringing it up, but even halfway through, my understanding of lookarounds increased substantially. I use all of them regularly, but with a half-understanding of what was going on or why it would work sometimes and others not. Beyond that, greedy/lazy/possessive quantifiers… grouping. Sure, I’ve used them at some point. Some more often than others and with more understanding. But now? I get it all.

    It’s kind of a shame. I don’t have to write regex every day and when I do, it’s usually file searching, so it’s throw-away code. However, I haven’t yet read the chapters on efficiency, so perhaps my knowledge will grow in that area and that will pay off daily!

    Anyway, if you have any regular use of regex, this book is worth it. I picked up a used copy. I’d have paid cover price ($44.99 USD) easily knowing what’s actually in the book, how it’s written, etc. That brings me to my final point. The author does an amazing job of keeping what could be a very dry subject fresh and clear. You just can’t appreciate that enough.
    7 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2019
    I use to google "regex" and refer to the websites that would show from the search results. In my opinion, most of these sites were hard to use when trying to really understand regex. Maybe I wasn't persistent enough to screen crawl through several regex webpages/websites. I knew in my very soul I didn't understand regex well, because of constant issues coming up with seemingly easy regular expressions. I finally decided I wanted something comprehensive to learn regex.

    This book gave me the level of understanding I was looking for. After reading this book I can confidently say that I'm 1000% more comfortable reading and creating my own regex. I stopped once I reached chapter 7 because the last chapters, 7-10 are language specific chapters, but in the future I'll definitely refer back to those chapters once I'm working with those languages.

    Lastly, I did get some flak from other devs while I was reading this book "Geez you're reading a book on regex?? wow that's too boring for me." etc. etc. Don't listen to the haters! If you want a greater understanding of regex, and this book can get you there then don't listen to those nerds. At the end of the day and with learning anything, it only matters that the nerd in your shoes understands the subject. Also, take your time reading the book. It's perfectly fine to pace yourself and take more time reading, because there's a lot of needed detail.
    29 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2012
    This book is the best regular expression book out there. I've been writing software for several years and my practical experience didn't scratch the surface of what regular expressions can do and how they work.

    If you want to decipher complex regular expressions and write your own, this is THE book to read. Friedl never glosses over important points and he never makes assumptions that you already understand regular expressions. The fact is, most of us just don't. Although regular expressions is mostly a pretty dry topic, Friedl does a good job lightening things up here and there (enough to prevent the topic from being too dry, but not so much that we forget the serious nature of the subject matter).

    The typographic conventions are nothing short of groundbreaking, and I believe there is no other volume out there, on the web, or written that does as good of a job walking you through regular expressions, explaining how all the various parts work together and how to do things in your own practical way.

    This book teaches you to THINK in regular expressions. Those once cryptic symbols will become powerful tools for you to manipulate and get the results you need. For me, regular expressions were a bit of stumbling block and a possible security risk (since I couldn't decipher really complex regular expressions). Aside from that, I didn't know the difference between NFA, DFA, and Posix NVA or how to optimize regex for these various engines (or whether optimization is even needed).

    I strongly recommend this book for both beginners and veterans of regular expressions. It might not change your life, but it will change the way you read and write regular expressions.
    7 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • Sante
    5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive and detailed, a book you need to have if you're serious about learning regex
    Reviewed in Italy on July 27, 2022
    This book has to be one of the best technical books I've read in many years. The author has gone to great lengths to explain how regular expressions work. The simple language allows the reader to understand and follow his train of thought. REGEX examples are all based on Perl, and you might find this annoying. However, I write simple scripts in Python and can follow the logic, so I re-write the examples. I wish everyone wrote technical books like Mastering Regular Expressions. Thank you, Jeffrey, for such a fantastic book.
  • Leonardo Sorensen
    5.0 out of 5 stars Livro excelente
    Reviewed in Brazil on February 18, 2018
    Ensina com maestria coisas que eu não sabia que não sabia. Não se limita a ensinar expressões regulares para o uso cotidiano; mostra também como as expressões são processadas e compara explicando a diferença de performance de diferentes patterns.
  • Cliente Amazon
    5.0 out of 5 stars Libro básico ...
    Reviewed in Spain on July 30, 2019
    ... para cualquier lenguaje de programación
  • elginblatherford
    5.0 out of 5 stars Probably the best tome on Regex there is
    Reviewed in Canada on September 25, 2016
    Probably the best tome on Regex there is. Covers just about every Regex flavor there is and their nuances. Reading through just a few chapters should whip you into good enough shape to apply intermediate to complex Regex patterns to the most common scenarios.

    Friedl exposes the internals of the most common Regex engine implementations.

    Whether you apply Regexes now and then, are a sysadmin, or are ramping up on work that demands Regex smarts, you will benefit greatly from this book.
  • Charl
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great book if you are serious about regex
    Reviewed in Australia on October 16, 2016
    Great book if you are serious about regex. Really liked the educational approach by starting simple and then progressing to challenging questions.
    (STARS){5}+