What are some practical use cases for regex?

What are some practical use cases for regex?

Regex, or regular expressions, are used for pattern matching in strings. Common use cases include validating email addresses, searching for specific patterns in text, and data extraction from logs.

Can you give me an example of how to validate an email address using regex?

Sure! A simple regex for validating an email address is: ^[\w-\.]+@[\w-]+\.[a-z]{2,4}$. This checks for the general structure of an email.

What about extracting phone numbers from a text?

You can use a regex like \b\d{3}[-.]?\d{3}[-.]?\d{4}\b to match phone numbers in formats like 123-456-7890 or 123.456.7890.

Are there any tools that can help me test regex patterns?

Yes! Tools like Regex101 and RegExr allow you to test and debug your regex patterns interactively.