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Get this book and get over your fear
Regular expressions always terrified me. I really got tired of looking for related examples on the 'net and hacking sample code so I decided I had to take the plunge.
I can say that the first chapter of this book is one of the most important chapters of any book I ever read. It leaves you breathless. Actually you'll probably want to read it again as the first time round you were so glued to the pages you didn't have time to try out the examples yourself.
In a book such as this layout and typographical conventions are of utmost importance and this book gets this spot on. An author who can cover this subject without simply using masses of examples and dry outlines of selected syntax arrangements deserves an acolade. This book goes further. It stimulates the juices and is a struggle to put down (to the detriment of your hands-on practice as mentioned above).
I was quite wary of exploring the territory of regular expressions and used to be very ambivalent towards Perl but this book helped to ease me in to a whole new world of script programming.
This book is not just for Perl geeks. PCREs (Perl Compatible Regular Expressions) are creeping into other programming and scripting languages now and this book will serve you no matter where you're coming from.
Get this book and get over your fear!
A Masterpiece of Fine Details
I bought, read and thoroughly enjoyed the first edition of this book, and was actually surprised to find the second edition a few years later, since I thought Jeffrey Friedl must have already said all there was to say about the subject, so complete was edition 1. However, I soon found a lot of useful new information in edition 2 (e.g. look-behind), beautifully explained as ever. Both editions are well-written IMO, although I wouldn't call them "easy reads". They are not really for dipping into, but for settling down with, although I can only usually manage a couple of chapters at a time, but I always come back. They are "satisfying reads", and somewhat addictive; I think they appeal to the nit-picker in me. For dipping into, perhaps the "Regular Expression Pocket Reference" (by a different author) will be better - I haven't read it yet. But if you actually want to understand REs (and they occur widely in the UNIX/Linux world that I inhabit :-) ), this book is a must. As a bonus, it is also a rather good introduction to Perl (5.8 in the 2nd edition), but of course, REs are not confined to Perl, as the author makes clear. My only criticism is actually of the paper quality of the 2nd edition, which is odd, since the 1st edition's paper was recycled and acid-free, which this is apparently not, but it looks cheap and nasty. I think Jeffrey Friedl deserves better.
Great Book
This is one of the best books I have read in a long time. It goes far behind simply using regExps but into efficiency and alternate strategies. Covers implementation in many languages (java, perl, .net) yet is still quite easy to understand. The author says the aim of the book is to get you to "think in regular expressions", this is a great approach and I now find myself using regular expressions to do just about everything involving text. Well recommended if you really want to understand and use regular expressions
Authoritative and readable
Starts at the beginning with simple examples and detailed explanations. If you stick with it through 500-odd pages I'm sure you will end up knowing everything that's worth knowing about regular expressions. Personally I gave up about a third of the way through because I had learned everything I needed for my particular purposes. But it's good to know the book is still there for whenever I need to know some obscure detail. The writing style is great (readable like a story but sometimes quirky) and the layout and typography are exemplary.
Quality - your coding will never be the same again!
If you regularly develop code in Perl, PHP, Javascript, Java or any other language supporting Regular Expressions, this book will be invaluable to you. Regular Expressions might not look too wonderful, they don't look very friendly, but once you learn them, you'll wonder how you *ever* did without them. This book explains regular expressions comprehensively and simply, and covers specific differences between RE implementations in various languages. You really can't go wrong here - buying this book and investing a little time to learn Regular Expressions can double your efficiency as a coder - they save me countless hours in my job as a web developer for a major ISP, I couldn't live without Regular Expressions, and I couldn't live without this book!
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