For reasons that I won't explain, as they are too complicated
and not terribly relevant, I am interested in discovering what
people actually use regular expressions for. Not the subject
domain, but the construction of the regular expressions.
I know about computer scientists and parsing, and I know about
the use of relatively simple ones for things like extracting
HTML links from Web pages. But I don't have much feel for the
(probably rare but difficult) uses of more complex ones for
other purposes. I have heard of several such uses, but don't
have an overall idea of what is going on.
Any pointers appreciated, to more-or-less anything.
Regards,
Nick Maclaren.
Aug 24 '07
14  1266 
Simon Brunning wrote:
On 24 Aug 2007 10:58:46 GMT, Nick Maclaren <nm**@cus.cam.a c.ukwrote:
>For reasons that I won't explain, as they are too complicated
and not terribly relevant, I am interested in discovering what
people actually use regular expressions for.
http://xkcd.com/208/
That was the one that got me hooked on xkcd. I remember laughing so hard
at that. A friend and I still quote that one (and others).
/W
I work in print (book) production and i regularly use regular
expressions to parse .eps (encapsulated postscript) files for
incorrect specifications (8-bit vs. ASCII, etc), bad fonts and the
like. Just to ensure that what's been submitted to me will actually
end up on the page.
Nick Maclaren a écrit :
For reasons that I won't explain, as they are too complicated
and not terribly relevant, I am interested in discovering what
people actually use regular expressions for.
Usually, to obfuscate code. Sometimes for good reasons....
Hu ? Ok, me get out ---->[]
Nick Maclaren wrote:
For reasons that I won't explain, as they are too complicated
and not terribly relevant, I am interested in discovering what
people actually use regular expressions for. Not the subject
domain, but the construction of the regular expressions.
I know about computer scientists and parsing, and I know about
the use of relatively simple ones for things like extracting
HTML links from Web pages. But I don't have much feel for the
(probably rare but difficult) uses of more complex ones for
other purposes. I have heard of several such uses, but don't
have an overall idea of what is going on.
Any pointers appreciated, to more-or-less anything.
I just don't get what you're after!
Lots of data is available in text form, so sifting though it requires
regular expressions.
A better question would be: what do you use Perl for, as I'd say most
Perl programs utilize REs at some point or the other.
But IIRC we've had that thread already.
--
Mails please to josef dot moellers
and I'm on gmx dot de.
John W. Krahn <kr****@telus.n etwrote in comp.lang.perl. misc:
Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article <fa**********@m lucom4.urz.uni-halle.de>,
Mirco Wahab <wa********@gmx .netwrites:
|>
|Using complex regular expressions is like tank destruction
|with contact charges glued on them. Only a few people
|will even survive the first "usage", but survivors will
|then eventually be able to destroy almost every tank with
|tremendous speed and precision.
I must remember that! It is nicely put.
I couldn't understand it. (An old Centurion trooper.)
Me neither. The word "nicely" isn't the first thing it brings to
mind.
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