On Monday, November 2, 2015 at 9:38:24 PM UTC-7, Michael Torrie wrote: > On 11/02/2015 09:23 PM, rurpy--- via Python-list wrote: > >> My completely unsolicited advice is that regular expressions shouldn't be > >> very high on the list of things to learn. They are very useful, and very > >> tricky and prone many problems that can and should be learned to be > >> resolved with much simpler methods. If you really want to learn regular > >> expressions, that's great but the problem you posed is not one for which > >> they are the best solution. Remember simpler is better than complex. > > > > Regular expressions should be learned by every programmer or by anyone > > who wants to use computers as a tool. They are a fundamental part of > > computer science and are used in all sorts of matching and searching > > from compilers down to your work-a-day text editor. > > > > Not knowing how to use them is like an auto mechanic not knowing how to > > use a socket wrench. > > Not quite. Core language concepts like ifs, loops, functions, > variables, slicing, etc are the socket wrenches of the programmer's > toolbox. Regexs are like an electric impact socket wrench. You can do > the same work without it, but in many cases it's slower. But you have to > learn the other hand tools first in order to really use the electric > driver properly (understanding torques, direction of threads, etc), lest > you wonder why you're breaking off so many bolts with the torque of the > impact drive.
I consider regexs more fundemental. One need not even be a programmer to use them: consider grep, sed, a zillion editors, database query languages, etc. When there is a mini-language explicitly developed for describing string patterns, why, except is very simple cases, would one not take advantage of it? Beyond trivial operations a regex, although terse (overly perhaps), is still likely to be more understandable more maintainable than bunch of ad-hoc code. And the relative ease of expressing complex patterns means one is more likely to create more specific patterns, resulting in detecting unexpected input earlier than with ad-hoc code. -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
