Become a Regex expert in 4 minutes
What is Regex Regular expressions (regex) are patterns used to match and manipulate text. Think of them as a super-powered search function that lets you find specific patterns in strings—like “all email addresses,” “phone numbers,” or “words starting with ‘cat’"—instead of just exact matches. They’re everywhere: text editors, command-line tools, programming languages, and even your IDE’s search-and-replace feature. Why Should You Care? Regex saves you hours of manual text processing. Whether you’re parsing log files, validating user input, extracting data from documents, or refactoring code, regex turns 100 lines of string manipulation into a single elegant pattern. It’s like having a Swiss Army knife for text—once you learn it, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it. ...