On Thu, 5 Nov 2015 11:24 am, ru...@yahoo.com wrote: > You will find they are an indispensable tool, not just in Python > programming but in many aspects of computer use.
You will find them a useful tool, but not indispensable by any means. Hint: - How many languages make arithmetic a built-in part of the language? Almost all of them. I don't know of any language that doesn't let you express something like "1 + 1" using built-in functions or syntax. Arithmetic is much closer to indispensable. - How many languages make regular expressions a built-in part of the language? Almost none of them. There's Perl, obviously, and its predecessors sed and awk, and probably a few others, but most languages relegate regular expressions to a library. - How many useful programs can be written with regexes? Clearly there are many. Some of them would even be quite difficult without regexes. (In effect, you would have to invent your own pattern-matching code.) - How many useful programs can be written without regexes? Clearly there are also many. Every time you write a Python program and fail to import re, you've written one. Can you call yourself a well-rounded programmer without at least a basic understanding of some regex library? Well, probably not. But that's part of the problem with regexes. They have, to some degree, driven out potentially better -- or at least differently bad -- pattern matching solutions, such as (E)BNF grammars, SNOBOL pattern matching, or lowly globbing patterns. Or even alternative idioms, like Hypercard's "chunking" idioms. When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. -- Steven -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
