| This book is about a powerful tool called "regular expressions."
Here, you will learn how to use regular expressions to solve problems and get the most out of tools that provide them. Not only that, but much more: this book is about mastering regular expressions.
If you use a computer, you can benefit from regular expressions all the time (even if you don't realize it). When accessing World Wide Web search engines, with your editor, word processor, configuration scripts, and system tools, regular expressions are often provided as "power user" options. Languages such as Awk, Elisp, Expect, Perl, Python, and Tcl have regular-expression support built in (regular expressions are the very heart of many programs written in these languages), and regular-expression libraries are available for most other languages. For example, quite soon after Java became available, a regular-expression library was built and made freely available on the Web. Regular expressions are found in editors and programming environments such as vi, Delphi, Emacs, Brief, Visual C++, Nisus Writer, and many, many more. Regular expressions are very popular.
There's a good reason that regular expressions are found in so many diverse applications: they are extremely powerful. At a low level, a regular expression describes a chunk of text. You might use it to verify a user's input, or perhaps to sift through large amounts of data. On a higher level, regular expressions allow you to master your data. Control it. Put it to work for you. To master regular expressions is to master your data. |
