How to master Regular Expressions? [closed]

Question

I use Mastering Regular Expressions from O'Reilly.

Here are some good resources:

http://regexlib.com/

http://www.regular-expressions.info/

And my new favorite, https://regex101.com/. Absolutely brilliant! Really, they're making things too easy these days.

I highly recommend reading Mastering Regular Expressions. It lives up to its name.

Tutorials:

http://www.regular-expressions.info/tutorial.html - One great tutorial on regex

Online Testers:

http://osteele.com/tools/reanimator/ - it animates your regex as an automaton, cool!

http://regexpal.com/ - really cool and easy to use

http://www.fileformat.info/tool/regex.htm

Tools:

http://www.radsoftware.com.au/regexdesigner/

.Net specific:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/az24scfc(VS.71).aspx

Java specific:

http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/essential/regex/

GeneXus X specific:

http://wiki.gxtechnical.com/commwiki/servlet/hwikibypageid?4606

regular-expressions.info is an excellent site, and RegexBuddy is a great visualizing tool.

Best way to master regular expressions is to use them in your day to day work. Use a regex aware editor. I recommend NotePad++. Use the find and replace functionality with regex enabled.

You need to know just the basics to start off. Words, characters, numbers, white spaces. They are quite easy to remember. You don't get everything right the first time. But you will learn every time you try it.

Remember, unless you use it regularly, you will probably forget regex in couple of weeks.