Regular Expression for Dummies [closed]

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Is there any resource out there that covers regular expression in a very basic starter level? I have looked at http://www.regular-expressions.info/ but it is not exactly 'quick reference' friendly.. any other sources?

For me I mostly use it in php, so php friendly would be helpful.

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Look at these: http://www.webcheatsheet.com/php/regular_expressions.php http://www.catswhocode.com/blog/15-php-regular-expressions-for-web-developers

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When I was starting out with regular expressions I got recommended this book: Mastering Regular Expressions. It really helped me understand the basic concept and how regular expressions work. But also I can still learn from it today because it also covers more advanced topics.

There are some pdf versions of the books out there, but I don't think they are legal. Otherwise I would really recommend buying this book if you really like to actually understand regexp and not just copy ready regexps and kind of understand how it works.

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If you are on windows, you can use this program http://www.radsoftware.com.au/regexdesigner/ It's mostly for .net but can apply to any regex scenario. There's a quick reference on the side and you can build and test your expressions.

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Sams Teach Yourself Regular Expressions in 10 Minutes gave me a very good start. Everything about RegEx is not taught in 10 minutes but each different aspect of RegEx is broken in to easy to understand ~10 minute sessions.

To actually test RegEx's, regexpal.com was awesome :)

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Here is a very basic php tutorial

You may find also some online regex testers useful, where you can play around with regular expressions.

Rubular or Regexr

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The best one I found out of these so far is http://www.addedbytes.com/download/regular-expressions-cheat-sheet-v2/png/ from Wesley Murch's post above. I didn't even think about searching for 'cheat-sheet' in google.. thanks!