lecture

Regex - The future programming

There are many popular myths concerning regular expressions (Regex). First, it's exceptionally hard to master Regex. Second, a normal programmer rarely needs Regex. Third, Regex are tricky to read and hence can't be maintained. That is all wrong! IDG media recently listed what knowledge will be most requested in our business ten years from now. In first place was Analyzing data. They explain: "Around 35 new petabyte data will be created every year after 2020. That's comparable to a DVD stack from earth to the moon and back again." Do you want to be one of the requested experts? Regex is based on a very simple mathematical theory. With just three plain operators – AND, OR and star – we can describe all state machines (FA) and catch almost any text pattern. The rest is supplementary. Many programmers first studied and then practiced Java for years. But, how much time did we spend on learning and writing Regex? Java is a strongly typed languages with excellent support for object orientation. However, data from files, user input, and databases are often untyped. Regex instantly and elegantly translates the untyped data into typed data. We can easily find, interpret, replace, and filter. Regex is seamlessly integrated as an external DSL. And, we can even test drive Regex development with JUnit. No prior Regex knowledge is required for this very practical session. Expect live coding and mini exercises, when Staffan reveals the secrets. Maybe it wasn't that hard to understand Regex? Maybe Regex can be maintained when we automate testing? Maybe there is a need for Regex in every single program? Staffan gives you the answers.