Regular Expressions Questions and Answers

Solid and well-organised. A couple of chapters dragged a little.

There is a particular kind of technical book that is dense without being difficult, and this is one of them. Some of the diagrams are dense and I had to reread a few sections, though that may just be me. The balance between theory and practice is well judged; neither side dominates. Good value for the price and worth the time it takes to work through properly.

The clearest explanation of regular expressions I have come across.

I came to this book already familiar with the basics, and it still had plenty to offer. The author clearly knows the subject deeply and has thought hard about how to teach it. The examples are small enough to type out and experiment with, which is exactly what I want from a book like this. The code samples assume a particular environment, which took a bit of fiddling to get running properly. If you have the prerequisites, this is an easy recommendation. I will be keeping it on my desk rather than the shelf.

Better than I expected. Rare to find a technical book this well judged.

I have been working with regular expressions for a few years now and I still found plenty here that was new to me. The index and cross-references are surprisingly good, which matters for a book I will come back to. The exercises at the end of each chapter are worth doing — they caught a few misconceptions I did not know I had. If you have the prerequisites, this is an easy recommendation. I will be keeping it on my desk rather than the shelf.