StrategyWiki:Guide/Regular expressions

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Regular expressions, often referred to as a regex or regexp, plural regexes or regexps, are used to help find changes that need to be replaced and to replace them.

Tools

To use a regular expression you will have to have find a code base that can run it. The easiest tools to use are:

• Google Chrome extension: Search and Replace 1.2.2
• TextPad (go to Search >> Replace, or press F8)

Syntax differences

Note that some tools code their regular expression syntax differently. For example, TextPad makes uses of simplified expressions, such as [:alpha:] to match a-z and A-Z.

Uses

• Adding a hundred file names to a table. See this example.
  • Regex used (in TextPad): "| || \([[:alpha:][:blank:]]\{10,20\}\) || \(.\{1,10\}\) Bells" (without quotes).