Summary: Ben Forta's Blog - Regular Expressions
ColdFusion, Flex, Java, Mobile and Wireless, and whatever else tickles my fancy.

The Korean edition of my
Sams
Teach Yourself Regular Expressions was published a while ago,
but my copies just arrived today, and thus this post. I've been
writing since the mid 90s, and have dozens of translations neatly
organized on my shelves. But, it's still quite a thrill every time
I get my hands on a new translation. And
this Korean translation is no exception. The book is
beautiful and of particularly high quality, the printing is crisp
and clear, the paper is a high-end off-white that is highly
readable, the text shading I use to highlight matches in the
Regular Expression examples was implemented really well, there is a
nice pull out reference card in the back ... as I said, just
beautiful. Any Korean readers out there? I'd love to hear what you
think of this one.
Date Published: Feb 03, 2011 - 2:09 pm
My
Sams Teach Yourself Regular Expressions in 10
Minutes has proven to be a very popular book, and tens of
thousands of developers have used it to get started with Regular
Expressions. The book teaches RegEx incrementally, and for each
example a block of text is used, and matching text is shaded to
clearly demonstrate what the Regular Expression is doing.
Sams Teach
Yourself Regular Expressions in 10 Minutes has apparently now
been released for the
Amazon Kindle. I've not seen the Kindle version
yet (as I don't have a Kindle yet), but readers are reporting to me
that the Kindle version is missing the shading, making all of the
examples rather useless! I've contacted the publisher about this
problem, and hope they'll correct it quickly. But for now, I
suggest you avoid the Kindle version of the book, and stick with
the print version.
Date Published: Jun 22, 2009 - 6:12 am
Remus Stratulat has
posted the source code for a simple Flex Regular
Expression tester. If you need to use Regular Expressions in
ActionScript code, this can get you started quickly.
Date Published: Jan 15, 2009 - 2:31 pm
As per
this TechNote, allows the dollar symbol ($) to
bypass generated client side validation. I don't know how long this
has been the case, but the solution (as noted in the TechNote) is
to use a regular expression instead.
Date Published: Oct 24, 2008 - 2:24 pm
ColdFusion has supported Regular Expressions for a while, but I've
always missed a REMatch() function, one that would locate all
matches and return them. Over the years several of us have written
our own functions to do this, but that's no longer needed -
REMatch() and REMatchNoCase() are both in
Scorpio.
Date Published: May 04, 2007 - 11:49 am
TechBookReport has reviewed my "Sams Teach Yourself Regular
Expressions In 10 Minutes", giving it a verdict of "A pretty good
introduction", and concluding that "the book provides a painless
way into regular expressions. It takes a simple approach and keeps
focused on showing how to get the job done. If you're already a
regex regular then the chances are that there's not much new here
for you, but if you're just starting out then this is a pretty good
place to start." The full review is at
http://www.techbookreport.com/tbr0079.html, and the book page is
http://www.forta.com/books/0672325667/. Thanks to Pan Pantziarka
for bringing this to my attention.
Date Published: May 05, 2004 - 8:41 am
This is quite the compliment. UK IT Magazine, The Register, has
proclaimed that my "Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes has
established itself as the gold standard for introductory SQL
books", and is recommending both that book and my new "Sams Teach
Yourself Regular Expressions in 10 Minutes". Story at
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/05/04/10_minutes_for_a_new_skill/.
Thanks to Dan Alig for bringing this to my attention. (FYI, links
to both books are at http://www.forta.com/books/).
Date Published: May 04, 2004 - 9:01 am
U.K. IT online magazine, The Register, briefly reviewed (and
discounted) my new "Sams Teach Yourself Regular Expressions in 10
Minutes" at http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/31/36664.html
(book info at http://www.forta.com/books/0672325667/). Thanks to
Lucas Sherwood for letting me know about this one.
Date Published: Apr 04, 2004 - 2:29 pm
Several of you wrote to tell me that you tried to buy my new "Sams
Teach Yourself Regular Expressions in 10 Minutes" (see
http://www.forta.com/books/0672325667/) from Amazon.com, only to be
told that it was backordered. Indeed, Amazon.com ran out of their
entire stock within a day (which is why the status changed from
"Usually ships within 24 hours" to "Usually ships within 2 to 3
days"). Thankfully, Amazon.com has replenished their stock already.
I apologize for the inconvenience, and thank you for your continued
support.
Date Published: Mar 12, 2004 - 9:56 am
It had to happen, several readers have found typos in my new "Sams
Teach Yourself Regular Expressions in 10 Minutes", and so the
errata is now online (link at the bottom of
http://www.forta.com/books/0672325667/.
Date Published: Mar 12, 2004 - 7:26 am
Two days after is started shipping, my new "Sams Teach Yourself
Regular Expressions in 10 Minutes" made it onto the Amazon.com
Bestsellers list, debuting at #3 in the "Computers & Internet"
category. (#1 is a title on Mac OSX, #2 is on Adobe Photoshop, #4
is on Windows Server 2003, quite a diverse list). List is at Books,
Bestsellers, and then select the category from the list on the
left. Cool! :-)
Date Published: Mar 10, 2004 - 12:59 pm