How can test I regular expressions using multiple RE engines? [closed] - regex

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How can I test the same regex against different regular expression engines?


The most powerful free online regexp testing tool is by far http://regex101.com/ - lets you select the RE engine (PCRE, JavaScript, Python), has a debugger, colorizes the matches, explains the regexp on the fly, can create permalinks to the regex playground.
Other online tools:
http://www.rexv.org/ - supports PHP and Perl PCRE, Posix, Python, JavaScript, and Node.js
http://refiddle.com/ - Inspired by jsfiddle, but for regular expressions. Supports JavaScript, Ruby and .NET expressions.
http://regexpal.com/ - powered by the XRegExp JavaScript library
http://www.rubular.com/ - Ruby-based
Perl Regex Tutor - uses PCRE
Windows desktop tools:
The Regex Coach - free Windows application
RegexBuddy recommended by most, costs US$ 39.95
Jeff Atwood [wrote about regular expressions]( post:).
Other tools recommended by SO users include:
http://www.txt2re.com/ Online free tool to generate regular expressions for multiple language (#palmsey another thread)
The Added Bytes Regular Expressions Cheat Sheet (#GateKiller another thread)
http://regexhero.net/ - The Online .NET Regular Expression Tester. Not free.


RegexBuddy


I use Expresso (www.ultrapico.com). It has a lot of nice features for the developer. The Regulator used to be my favorite, but it hasn't been updated in so long and I constantly ran into crashes with complicated RegExs.


Here are some for the Mac: (Note: don't judge the tools by their websites)
RegExhibit - My Favorite, powerful and easy
Reggy - Simple and Clean
RegexWidget - A Dashboard Widget for quick testing


If you are an Emacs user, the command re-builder lets you type an Emacs regex and shows on the fly the matching strings in the current buffer, with colors to mark groups. It's free as Emacs.


Rubular is free, easy to use and looks nice.


RegexBuddy is a weapon of choice


I use the excellent and free Rad Software Regular Expression Designer.
If you just want to write a regular expression, have a little help with the syntax and test the RE's matching and replacing then this fairly light-footprint tool is ideal.


couple of eclipse plugins for those using eclipse,
http://www.brosinski.com/regex/
http://www.bastian-bergerhoff.com/eclipse/features/web/QuickREx/toc.html


Kodos of course. Cause it's Pythonic. ;)


RegexBuddy is great!!!


I agree on RegExBuddy, but if you want free or when I'm working somewhere and not on my own system RegExr is a great online (Flash) tool that has lots of pre-built regex segments to work with and does real-time pattern matching for your testing.


In the standard Python installation there is a "Tools/scripts" directory containing redemo.py.
This creates an interactive Tkinter window in which you can experiment with regexs.


In the past I preferred The Regex Coach for its simplistic layout, instantaneous highlighting and its price (free).
Every once in awhile though I run into an issue with it when trying to test .NET regular expressions. For that, it turns out, it's better to use a tool that actually uses the .NET regular expression engine. That was my whole reason to build Regex Hero last year. It runs in Silverlight, and as such, runs off of the .NET Regex Class library directly.


Regexbuddy does all this. http://www.regexbuddy.com/


see the accepted answer to this question: Learning Regular Expressions


I'll add to the vote of Reggy for the Mac, gonna try out some of the other ones that Joseph suggested and upvote that post tomorrow when my limit gets reset.


for online: http://regexpal.com/
for desktop: The Regex Coach


+1 For Regex Coach here. Free and does the job really well.
http://www.weitz.de/regex-coach/


I am still a big The Regulator fan.
There are some stability problems but these can be fixed by disableing the Intellisense. It gets mad with some expressions and typos in building an expression.
Would love it if Roy Osherove updated, but looks like he is busy with other things.


I like to use this online one:
http://www.cuneytyilmaz.com/prog/jrx/
Of course, it'll be javascript regexp, but I've never yet done anything clever enough to notice the difference.


How much is your time worth? Pay the $40 and get RegexBuddy. I did, and I even upgraded from 2.x version to 3.x. It has paid for itself many times over.


I personally like the Regular Expression Tester.
It's a free firefox plugin, so always on!


Also this regex plugin can be useful for eclipse and idea users.


I like http://regexhero.net/tester/ a lot


Check out Regex Master which is free and open source regular expression tester


This regex tester able to test javascript, php and python
http://www.piliapp.com/regex-tester/


RegExBuddy so far I concur with and endorse.


RegExr for testing with the Actionscript 3 (whichever standard that may be)


http://rgx-extract-replace.appspot.com
has the functionality to enlist the captured regex groups formatted in columns and
optionally can replace the matched patterns in the input text.

Related

What is the name of vim's regex engine?

Honestly, I find Regex a nightmare mainly due to the variety of engines available to Regex. However, knowing the engine and flavor names of a particular application helps me figure out what syntax I must follow.
For instance, Visual Studio uses the .NET engine. What is the name of vim's regex engine?
edit: As #Matt and #phd explained, flavor != engine. Vim has its own engine, but it has four flavors: nomagic, magic, very nomagic, very magic.

Well, I'm not an expert in this topic, but i think my research can be helpful.
What I have found so far is that Vim has it's own RegEx engine and this topic
can be informative for you, because there are some explanations to why Vim has it's own engine.
Also on this wiki page you can find what features are supported in Vim.
Hope that I could help you a bit.

Building a Powershell Regex

Link to Answer from another question
In the link above there is a regex construct I am trying to figure out what the -f in it is doing. Appreciate your help.
Also, where can I find other regex parameters and other tutorial about regex. Any links please.
Thanks for reading and responding.

If you are just interested in learning Regex in Powershell, lookup Mastering Powershell, and navigate to Chapter 14, Text and Regular Expressions. It's sorta bare bones, but it's a start.

there are 3 Regex Languages (An more I am not thinking of), and they are: PCRE/Javascript/Python. They regexs vary depending on which "Flavor" you use.
I suggest starting out by learning PCRE, because it is a very strong Flavor of Regex.
Here are some nice tutorials:
http://regex.learncodethehardway.org/book/
http://regexcrossword.com/

What regular expression engine is used by default in LoadRunner 11.52?

I keep trying to find an online regular expression checker to use with web_reg_save_param_regexp but no joy. What RegEx engine is LoadRunner 11.52 using?
It looks to be some variant of Perl.

In LoadRunner we use this: http://www.pcre.org/
Thanks,
Boris

This article suggests that the author is using http://rubular.com/ to test his web_reg_save_param_regexp, suggesting that it's likely PCRE (at least partly implemented).
A great PCRE checker is http://regex101.com.

How to verify regexp patterns?

What are the common ways to verify the given regex pattern works well of the given scenario and check the results ?
I would like to know in general , not in the particular programming language and what is the best way to learn about writing regular expression ?

Books: Mastering Regular Expressions is the definitive guide to regular expressions. The Regular Expressions Cookbook is said to be lighter and more easily applicable.
Sites: Friedel's companion site is a good start. Regexlib is a source of idioms and patterns.
Software: RegexBuddy is a good, per pay, regex verifier.

I've used this resource when learning: http://www.regular-expressions.info/ and found myself going back there whenever there was something I needed to remember. It's very useful for learning and covers the basics very well. They also have various links to programs which can be used to verify regular expressions.

This is not a "real" verification, but RegexBuddy allows you to verify that your regex does what you expect it to do on any sample data you provide. It also translates the regex into an English description that can help to figure out mistakes. Plus, it knows all major regex flavors and can translate regexes between them.

For testing regular expression you can use RegEx Test tools like one below :
http://www.regextester.com/
To know more about how to learn regular expressions please check following SO threads :
Learning Regular Expressions
How to master Regular Expressions?
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/465119/how-do-i-learn-regular-expressions-closed

RAD Rexexp designer is a great tool

Set up an automated test using your tools of choice (because regex implementations vary from language to language and library to library) which applies the regex to a variety of both matching and non-matching inputs to verify that you get the correct results.
While RegexBuddy and the like may be helpful for initially creating the regex (or may not; I've never used them), you will still need to maintain it, just like any other code. When that time comes, it's vastly preferable to have a test script that will run through all your old test inputs (plus the new ones which created the need for the change) in a matter of seconds rather than having to sit on a website for tens of minutes, if not hours, trying to remember all your test inputs and manually re-run them to make sure you didn't break anything.

easy to use Regex creator tool? [closed]

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I tried some regex tools like Regulator, Regulazy & RegexBuddy. They don't do what I want and they expect the user to know regular expressions.
I want a tool for dummies. You tell the tool I need a regex for something like "match anything that ends with the word 'yes' and it contains at least one occurrence of the phrase '/test/'" and it creates the regex for you.
So I either enter my request in plain English or semi plain English or the tool has all kinds of ready made selections and I choose between them to create what I want ad hoc.
Is there such a tool which is geared towards non developers? I am not looking for a regex tester.

I have been a fan of Ultrapico's Expresso application. There is a builder section that helps you (a little) in building fragments of the expression. More importantly it will explain an existing expression (either your own or from the built in expression library) section by section.
It also includes a testing and replacement section to see and test your expressions. Lastly it will generate the expression formatted for either C#, C++, or VB.NET so that you know exactly how to insert the expression into your project.
Best of all it's free. I have been using this tool to help learn how regular expressions actually work, especially the complex ones. Can't say it makes writing expressions idiot proof but it has sure made learning expressions easier for me...
This tool was featured in a MSDN Webcast by Zain Naboulsi, and might be worth a watch. Hope this helps, and good luck with your Regex journey!

txt2re seems really good. I entered "This string contains test in it and ends in yes" into the box, clicked on test and yes, and
got a regular expression. It doesn't focus on teaching how to build regexes, but it shows you the perl code to parse what you need.
The real power of this tool is its ability to recognize things like dates, URLs, and tags. Whitespace didn't seem to work too well, however, and it doesn't appear to handle any sort of repetition.

Personally I really like Expresso http://www.ultrapico.com/Expresso.htm
The interface is quite clean - lets you test out search and replace functionality, has good help, plus it generates the C# expressions for you if you like.

For me, the best tool is RegexBuilder it's open source and writen in C#, so you can customize it as much as you want ;)
Enjoy. ;)

For web-based (one line only): http://txt2re.com/
For offline (Full text file is possible): Expresso

I like my own RegEx Builder best: http://www.linuxintro.org/regex

I am not sure such a tool exists, since they usually do the opposite:
Analyze a regexp and translate it in plain English.
The closest solution to your need would be this C# library, allowing you to program regexp in a semi-readable way:
Instead of this:
const string findGamesPattern =
#"<div\s*class=""game""\s*id=""(?<gameID>\d+)-game""(?<content>.*?)<!--gameStatus\s*=\s*(?<gameState>\d+)-->";
You would have, using ReadableRex:
Pattern findGamesPattern = Pattern.With.Literal(#"<div")
.WhiteSpace.Repeat.ZeroOrMore
.Literal(#"class=""game""").WhiteSpace.Repeat.ZeroOrMore.Literal(#"id=""")
.NamedGroup("gameId", Pattern.With.Digit.Repeat.OneOrMore)
.Literal(#"-game""")
.NamedGroup("content", Pattern.With.Anything.Repeat.Lazy.ZeroOrMore)
.Literal(#"<!--gameStatus")
.WhiteSpace.Repeat.ZeroOrMore.Literal("=").WhiteSpace.Repeat.ZeroOrMore
.NamedGroup("gameState", Pattern.With.Digit.Repeat.OneOrMore)
.Literal("-->");

I was also using Expresso, and found it quite good. The most important thing for me in these tools is validation and not so much visual aids for building expressions. I only need a tool to kind of remind me things, not design them for me.
Anyway, here's another free one, which I quite like. It's called Rad Software Regular Expression Designer. Hope this helps.

Try RegExr a flash based tool

If you are a mac person, try this widget, althought it's also a tester i find it quite useful as it's really easy to get to it while learning regex online
http://mac.softpedia.com/progDownload/Regex-Widget-Download-28467.html

I settled on RegexBuddy. It has a debugger, visualizer and translates the regex into plain English.

Well it's still very much a tool in development, but you could try Textpression at http://www.textpression.com Disclosure: I'm the author.
Textpression enables visual regex creation with a drag and drop editor; no regex syntax to learn! At time of writing Textpression is still in Alpha, but let me know what you think!

Intuitive Regular Expression Analyser and Composer Class (for PHP, Node/JS and Python), regex composer live example here
RegexAnalyser github repository
ps i am the author

As per details in your question, I think Regex Builder Tool is the exact tool you need.
For the regex you asked in question, you would give requirements in simple plain english like _Match_anywhere_in_text_ _zero_or_more_of_ ( _any_character_) _then_ _one_or_more_of_ ( _exact_string_ ( test)) _then_ _zero_or_more_of_ ( _any_character_) _then_ _exact_string_ ( yes) _then_ _end_of_line_
This would automatically generate regex .*test+.*yes$ You can also test generated regex right there using input like I did test, results yes & it would show that generated regex is matching the text as per your expectations.