title: Beginning Regular Expressions
author: Andrew Watt
description: Regular expressions help users and developers to find and manipulate text more effectively and efficiently. In addition, regular expressions are supported by many scripting languages, programming languages, and databases. This example-rich tutorial helps debunk the traditional reputation of regular expressions as being cryptic. It explains the various parts of a regular expression pattern, what those parts mean, how to use them, and common pitfalls to avoid when writing regular expressions.
zlib_text: Regular Expressions Cookbook
  
  Regular Expressions Cookbook
  Jan Goyvaerts and Steven Levithan
  Beijing • Cambridge • Farnham • Köln • Sebastopol • Taipei • Tokyo
  
  Regular Expressions Cookbook
  by Jan Goyvaerts and Steven Levithan
  Copyright © 2009 Jan Goyvaerts and Steven Levithan. All rights reserved.
  Printed in the United States of America.
  Published by O’Reilly Media, Inc., 1005 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA 95472.
  O’Reilly books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use. Online editions
  are also available for most titles (http://my.safaribooksonline.com). For more information, contact our
  corporate/institutional sales department: (800) 998-9938 or corporate@oreilly.com.
  Editor:
  Andy Oram
  Production Editor:
  Sumita Mukherji
  Copyeditor:
  Genevieve d’Entremont
  Proofreader:
  Kiel Van Horn
  Indexer:
  Seth Maislin
  Cover Designer:
  Karen Montgomery
  Interior Designer:
  David Futato
  Illustrator:
  Robert Romano
  Printing History:
  May 2009:
  First Edition. 
  Nutshell H