About Me

John Tattarakis, aka Dr. Regex

First off, I should clarify that I'm not actually a real doctor. However, when it comes to regex, I do have a lot of patience.

I've been using regex for close to 15 years, though my interest didn't really ignite until fairly recently when I went crazy and started abusing regex in perversely inappropriate ways. After discovering that it is possible to match nested brackets using forward references, I decided that I probably ought to scribble down my findings somewhere.

Full disclosure: the primary purpose of this blog is not to teach regex. There are other resources out there that explain basic concepts much more skillfully and comprehensively than I can. In fact, most of the material here will likely be counter-productive to those seeking legitimate educational support. I predict that a lot of the expressions I introduce will be largely inefficient and definitely not the right tool for the job in the context of a wider programming arsenal.

What you will find here is a number of creative demonstrations of regex being used in ways that push the boundaries of possibility. These tricks and techniques will hopefully inspire you and motivate you to cultivate your own skill set. Or they may infuriate you and make you unspeakably depressed.

This is a blog by a regex maniac for other regex maniacs.

Read at your peril.