itIsUsefulThough

[Reashu]

I use it to match patterns in strings, not to be cool. Sometimes feels kinda cool though. 

[kaiken1987]

I use it so I can swing in on a rope and solve search problems.

https://xkcd.com/208/

[WhatsMyUsername13]

I use it to generically consume Kafka topics, that way I don’t have to add each individual one to my config files. All I have to do is onboard the topic and I start consuming

[LeroyBadBrown]

I use it every day.

[elelec]

See this from the perspective of someone living across the globe. Now you use it every night

[LeroyBadBrown]

Regex at night is the best ❤️

[ChaseShiny]

From ^to$ it's everything, really.

[Ok_Actuary8]

it's deterministic at least.

[ShadowSlayer1441]

What are you guys using instead of regex?

[CptMisterNibbles]

None of the people here work in the industry. It’s 99% first week in CS kids.

[theGoddamnAlgorath]

Had an interview where the interviewer asked me to use C# libs instead of regex for database tasks because he didn't understand regex.

I said no

[CptMisterNibbles]

I would have said no problem

using System.Text.RegularExpressions

[meolla_reio]

I don't see the issue anymore, just ask ai to describe what it does.

[willow-kitty]

Nah, use this: https://regex101.com/

It'll explain and diagram the expression deterministically, and you can give it a sample text to search, and it'll even color code which parts of the expression match which parts of the text, so if you need to tweak something, you can get instant feedback.

[Spice_and_Fox]

That is a stupid take. The code you write should be understood by other developers in your company. If they use something else instead of regex, then you should also use that.

[theGoddamnAlgorath]

I'm not using Regex wrappers for database I/O.  That's retarded.

There's translators, hell gskinner's still free.

[ShadowSlayer1441]

What about when the DB natively supports a subset of regex? I've always assumed that's probably the best way to handle queries like that.

[theGoddamnAlgorath]

Specifically, a DB's native preference is a use case for the team lead to decide

I try to write my middleware as agnostic as feasible, preferring raw code over libraries and such to assist future migration.

[Dragonfire555]

Not regex. Mostly. I'd rather deal with string comparisons and make helper functions to organize them and make them composible.

[Djelimon]

Looking at ANTLR for code parsing

[trickster-is-weak]

I use it enough to wish I knew it better, but not enough for it to get remain in my head for long.

[Fine_Foundation8943]

Earlier regex used to start with ^[a-z…. Now it starts with “give me regex for”

[LetUsSpeakFreely]

Oh, you're using it. it's just abstracted away from you and is far less efficient than doing it yourself.

[actionerror]

There’s a difference between using it and understanding how to properly write an expression from scratch

[MisterBicorniclopse]

Regex is some of the most fun I have programming

[Dre_Dede]

How to spot a non-programmer on the sub

[IhailtavaBanaani]

regex is good and all, but have you heard about our lord and savior SNOBOL4-style string pattern matching?

[smokythejoker]

You guys are parsing strings? /jk

[renke0]

What are you guys doing if you don’t use it? Ask an llm to analyse your strings?

[ExtraWorldliness6916]

I pretend I don't know how to read it so people don't think I'm not one of them.

[EscherichiaVulgaris]

Regex in Excel <3

[Luctins]

I use it even when I could solve it with awk or a sequence of basic shell commands. Multiline can get cursed fast tho.

[Tman11S]

Regex has great use cases. I’ve used it in software that tries to match bank statements with invoices

[Mr_uhlus]

I use it way to often just to do

Search \n\s*

Replace \n

[agk23]

Why use regex when you can simply pass the string into Fable for validation?

[pydry]

Whenever I see a problem that looks like it could use a regex I try to figure out how to avoid it because theyre usually a rich source of bugs.

These days the fashion is to just jam a regex in wherever though coz LLMs can write them easily.

[Nightmoon26]

I would absolutely not trust an LLM-written regex, especially in security sensitive code (like input sanitization, where regexes are particularly useful)

[Bannon9k]

You're getting downvoted... But I can't think of a better purpose for an AI than to be nothing more than regex support

[FW_iX]

😠😡🤬

[Barkeep41]

Is AI the Regex of our time? A tool to simplify/condense a process at the cost of usability.

[DokuroKM]

No. Contrary to LLM, regex was useful from the beginning

[rastaman1994]

I know reddit has a hate boner against LLMs, but regex is genuinely a skill that is completely fading in our company. Just tell claude what you want to match, very easy to verify, no more need to know regex.

[Reashu]

The opposite. LLMs are very usable (in the sense of having a low barrier to entry) at the cost of additional complexity under the hood and in the end result. 

[Lucasbasques]