Regular expression testing tool that is easy to use. - Dynamic highlighting of matches while the regular expression or sample text is being modified - Automatic escaping of special characters when copying a regular expression - Automatic unescaping of special characters when pasting a regular expression. Regular expression, or often known as regex, is a pattern that consist of rules used to match a certain set of strings. Mac, Linux)Tools for learning, editing, and testing regular expressions (RegEx or RegExp for short) on Mac OSX. And other languages (such as Sed, Ruby, or Perl). Regular Expressions TesterFirefox addon testing tool for. Top Regular Expressions. Email validation Check if a string only contains numbers Namespace Prefix validateFilename. Regex Tester isn't optimized for mobile devices yet. You can still take a look, but it might be a bit quirky. Thank you for using my tool. If you could share this tool with your friends, that would be a huge help.
Fiddler tool for mac. Don’t forget to follow the Windows Store Developer Solutions team on Twitter. - Bret Bentzinger(Microsoft). Comments are welcome, both below and on twitter.
- Regular Expression Tool For Windows
- Regular Expression Tool Online
- Regular Expression Tool For Mac
- Regular Expression Editor Mac
- Regular Expression Tool In Linux Fedora
Active2 months ago
Regular expressions can become quite complex. The lack of white space makes them difficult to read. I can't step though a regular expression with a debugger. So how do experts debug complex regular expressions?
rook
rookrook48.6k3131 gold badges141141 silver badges225225 bronze badges
Regular Expression Tool For Windows
closed as not constructive by casperOneMar 20 '13 at 15:42
As it currently stands, this question is not a good fit for our Q&A format. We expect answers to be supported by facts, references, or expertise, but this question will likely solicit debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion. If you feel that this question can be improved and possibly reopened, visit the help center for guidance. If this question can be reworded to fit the rules in the help center, please edit the question.
21 Answers
You buy RegexBuddy and use its built in debug feature. If you work with regexes more than twice a year, you will make this money back in time saved in no time. RegexBuddy will also help you to create simple and complex regular expressions, and even generate the code for you in a variety of languages.
Also, according to the developer, this tool runs nearly flawlessly on Linux when used with WINE.
Community♦
MickMick9,23888 gold badges5858 silver badges116116 bronze badges
With Perl 5.10,
use re 'debug';
. (Or debugcolor
, but I can't format the output properly on Stack Overflow.)Also, you can add whitespace and comments to regexes to make them more readable. In Perl, this is done with the
ephemientephemient/x
modifier. With pcre
, there is the PCRE_EXTENDED
flag.161k3232 gold badges236236 silver badges362362 bronze badges
I'll add another so that I don't forget it : debuggex
It's good because it's very visual:
kevinkevin75322 gold badges1212 silver badges2727 bronze badges
When I get stuck on a regex I usually turn to this:https://regexr.com/
Its perfect for quickly testing where something is going wrong.
thetaikothetaiko7,26822 gold badges2727 silver badges4646 bronze badges
I use Kodos - The Python Regular Expression Debugger:
Kodos is a Python GUI utility for creating, testing and debugging regular expressions for the Python programming language. Kodos should aid any developer to efficiently and effortlessly develop regular expressions in Python. Since Python's implementation of regular expressions is based on the PCRE standard, Kodos should benefit developers in other programming languages that also adhere to the PCRE standard (Perl, PHP, etc..).
(..)
Runs on Linux, Unix, Windows, Mac.
Glorfindel17.4k1111 gold badges5353 silver badges7575 bronze badges
Pascal ThiventPascal Thivent
498k119119 gold badges974974 silver badges10751075 bronze badges
Regular Expression Tool Online
I think they don't. If your regexp is too complicated, and problematic to the point you need a debugger, you should create a specific parser, or use another method. It will be much more readable and maintainable. Tool to scan network for mac address nmap.
Amal Murali63.9k1212 gold badges106106 silver badges126126 bronze badges
Valentin RocherValentin Rocher
There is an excellent free tool, the Regex Coach. The latest version is only available for Windows; its author Dr. Edmund Weitz stopped maintaining the Linux version because too few people downloaded it, but there is an older version for Linux on the download page.
APCAPC125k1717 gold badges128128 silver badges239239 bronze badges
I've just seen a presentation of Regexp::Debugger by its creator: Damian Conway.Very impressive stuff: run inplace or using a command line tool (rxrx), interactively or on a 'logged' execution file (stored in JSON), step forward and backward at any point, stop on breakpoints or events, colored output (user configurable), heat maps on regexp and string for optimization, etc..
Available on CPAN for free:http://search.cpan.org/~dconway/Regexp-Debugger/lib/Regexp/Debugger.pm
YvesYves
I use this online tool to debug my regex:
But yeah, it can't beat RegexBuddy.
janot7,71211 gold badge2222 silver badges5555 bronze badges
gfegfe
Regular Expression Tool For Mac
I debug my regexes with my own eyes. That's why I use
codeholiccodeholic/x
modifier, write comments for them and split them in parts. Read Jeffrey Friedl's Mastering Regular Expressions to learn how to develop fast and readable regular expressions. Various regex debugging tools just provoke voodoo programming.3,70822 gold badges1818 silver badges4141 bronze badges
As for me I usually use pcretest utility which can dump the byte code of any regex, and usually it is much more easier to read (for me at least). Example:
Mac OS X latest Yosemite comes with Python version 2.7, but not with pip (package manager). If you have Command Line Tools installed, the installation of pip is very simple. If you have Command Line Tools installed, the installation of pip is very simple. The main advantage of that solution is that it install pip for the python version that has been used to run get-pip.py, which means that if you use the default OS X installation of python to run get-pip.py you will install pip for the python install from the system. Nov 11, 2018 How to Install PIP on Mac Modern Mac systems come with Python and PIP already installed. However, this version of Python tends to be outdated and not the best choice for serious Python development, so it’s highly recommended that you install a more current version of Python and PIP. Pip installation tool for mac.
dark100dark100
I use:
You can also try Regex Hero (uses Silverlight):
Leniel MaccaferriLeniel Maccaferri83.7k3636 gold badges302302 silver badges409409 bronze badges
If I'm feeling stuck, I like to go backward and generate the regex directly from a sample text using txt2re (although I usually end up tweaking the resulting regex by hand).
eggsyntaxeggsyntax
If you're a Mac user, I just came across this one:
It's free, and simple to use, and it's been a great help for me to get to grips with RegExs in general.
jaypjayp
Have a look at the (non-free) tools on regular-expressions.info. RegexBuddy in particular. Here is Jeff Atwood's post on the subject.
SkilldrickSkilldrick52.9k3232 gold badges160160 silver badges224224 bronze badges
Writing reg exes using a notation like PCREs is like writing assembler: it's fine if you can just see the corresponding finite state automata in your head, but it can get difficult to maintain very quickly.
The reasons for not using a debugger are much the same as for not using a debugger with a programming language: you can fix local mistakes, but they won't help you solve the design problems that led you to make the local mistakes in the first place.
The more reflective way is to use data representations to generate regexps in your programming language, and have appropriate abstractions to build them. Olin Shiver's introduction to his scheme regexp notation gives an excellent overview of the issues faced in designing these data representations.
Charles StewartCharles Stewart10.1k33 gold badges3939 silver badges7979 bronze badges
I often use pcretest - hardly a 'debugger' but it works over a text-only SSH connection and parses exactly the regex dialect I need: my (C++) code links to libpcre, so there's no difficulty with subtle differences in what's magic and what isn't, etc.
In general I agree with the guy above to whom needing a regex debugger is a code smell. For me the hardest about using regexes is usually not the regex itself, but the multiple layers of quoting needed to make them work.
Bernd JendrissekBernd Jendrissek
I often use Ruby based regexp tester Rubular
and also in Emacs use M-xre-builder
Firefox also has a useful extension
ocodoocodo22.6k1515 gold badges8383 silver badges109109 bronze badges
Regular Expression Editor Mac
I use the Rx Toolkit included with ActiveState Komodo.
CzechnologyRegular Expression Tool In Linux Fedora
Czechnology12.5k88 gold badges5151 silver badges7878 bronze badges
You could try this onehttp://www.pagecolumn.com/tool/regtest.htm
Eugeniu ToricaEugeniu Torica4,3171010 gold badges4040 silver badges6060 bronze badges
For me, after having eyeballed the regex (as I'm fairly fluent, and nearly always use /x or equivalent), I might debug rather than test if I am unsure if I would hit some degenerate matching (i.e. something that excessively backtracks) to see if I could solve such issues by modifying the greedyness of an operator for example.
To do that, I'd use one of the methods mentioned above: pcretest, RegexBuddy (if my current workplace has licensed it) or similar, and sometimes I time it in Linqpad if I'm working in C# regexes.
(The perl trick is a new one for me, so will probably add that to my regex toolkit too.)
ChrisFChrisF