# VisualREGEXP

Copyright (c) 2000-2001 Laurent Riesterer
Latest version 2.2

ABOUT

VisualREGEXP helps you to design, debug or more generally work with regular expression. As it is often difficult to write the right regexp at the first try, this tool will show you the effect of your regexp on a sample you can choose.

REQUIREMENTS

This program requires Tcl/Tk 8.3.0 or later.

HOW TO USE

Launching the program

On Unix, use 'chmod +x ...' to make the program executable. You can then integrate it with your Window Manager or put it into an executable path.
On Windows, create a shortcut and invoke the script with 'wish.exe'

Design of regexps

To design regexp, just type the expression in the top text widget. Press the 'Go' button to highlight the matched part of the text in the sample text widget.

To get a quickref of the regexp syntax use the menu 'View/Show regexp help'.

You can specify some options using the checkboxes (please read Tcl help to learn the meaning of these options).

Recursive design of regexps

Sometimes you will need more than one step to extract the information you want from the sample. For example, imagine you want to retrieve information from an HTML table inside an another HTML table : '

One | 1
Two | 2

Foo | Bar

'

You cannot use one global regexp to extract the two lines "One 1" and "Two 2". You have to use a first regexp to narrow the processed region. Type the following regexp '

]*?>(.*?)

' and press 'Go'. You see now that the interessing area is shown in blue. Press the Match '1' button which will extract the blue text (the regexp to use to get this text is then printed on the console). Now use '
.*?
' to get the information you need.

Optimization of regexps

When you need to match a list of words, use the menu 'Insert regexp/Make regexp' to design an optimized version of the word list.

For example, the list 'aa aab ab ad' is optimized into 'a(ab?|b|d)'.

Processing the sample text

Use can use VisualREGEXP to perform modification of a text. Just use the menu 'Select mode/Use replace'. You can now design a regexp to match what you want. Then use the replace text widget to enter the substitution you want to apply (use \0, \1, \2, ... to match the subregexp, use the color to map the number with the matched sub-expressions).

After the substitution, you can save the new text using the 'File/Save ...' menu. You can let the program choose the end-of-line format or force them for a specific environment (Unix, Windows, Mac).

CONTACT

Send your bug reports, suggestions or any feedback to:

laurent.riesterer@free.fr
http://laurent.riesterer.free.fr

(.*?) | (.*?)