A Regular Expression is a tool for searching, processing, and manipulating text. Regular expressions have a long history and can be found in just about every popular programming language. They are widely used, and whether you are a developer or an engineer, you should be able to recognize and work with them.

In this lab, you will see real-world scenarios for using regular expressions, be introduced to some advanced features, and you will learn how to decide whether they are a good solution for different types of problems. 

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this beginner level lab, you will be able to:

• Use regular expressions to extract data from a log file
• Use a regular expression to validate passwords and dates
• Recognize situations where regular expressions are a good solution

Intended Audience

• Developers
• Engineers

Prerequisites

This lab builds upon the labs below and it is recommended to complete them before starting this lab:

• Constructing Regular Expression Character Classes
• Working with Special Characters and Anchors in Regular Expressions

Familiarity with the Python programming language will be beneficial but is not required.

The following course can be used to fulfill the prerequisite:

• Python for Beginners

Updates

January 11th, 2022 - Improved use of forwardslash and backslash terminology

October 6th, 2021 - Updated link for Apache doc

February 12th, 2021 - Clarified the difference between named capture groups and lookarounds

February 11th, 2021 - Removed unnecessary forward slash escape character