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https://github.com/learnbyexample/py_regular_expressions

Learn Python Regular Expressions step by step from beginner to advanced levels
https://github.com/learnbyexample/py_regular_expressions

ebook exercises learning-by-doing python regex regular-expressions

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Learn Python Regular Expressions step by step from beginner to advanced levels

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README 

        
# Understanding Python re(gex)?



Learn Python Regular Expressions step-by-step from beginner to advanced levels with hundreds of examples and exercises. The standard library `re` and the third-party `regex` module are covered in this book. Visit https://youtu.be/2x2n7ynamm8 for a short video about the book.



Understanding Python re(gex)? ebook cover image



The book also includes exercises to test your understanding, which are presented together as a single file in this repo — [Exercises.md](./exercises/Exercises.md)



For solutions to the exercises, see [Exercise_solutions.md](./exercises/Exercise_solutions.md).



You can also use [this interactive TUI app](https://github.com/learnbyexample/TUI-apps/tree/main/PyRegexExercises) to practice most of the exercises from the book.



See [Version_changes.md](./Version_changes.md) to keep track of changes made to the book.







# E-book



* You can purchase the pdf/epub versions of the book using these links

    * https://learnbyexample.gumroad.com/l/py_regex

    * https://leanpub.com/py_regex

* You can also get the book as part of these bundles:

    * **All books bundle** bundle from https://learnbyexample.gumroad.com/l/all-books

        * Includes all my programming books

    * **Learn by example Python bundle** from https://leanpub.com/b/python-bundle or https://learnbyexample.gumroad.com/l/python-bundle

    * **Awesome Regex** bundle from https://leanpub.com/b/regex or https://learnbyexample.gumroad.com/l/regex

    * **The Indie Python Extravaganza** bundle from https://leanpub.com/b/theindiepythonextravaganza

        * Includes *Python 101*, *Pydon'ts*, *Python re(gex)?*, *Practice Python Projects* and *Clean Architectures in Python*

    * [Python 101 + Python re(gex)?](https://leanpub.com/b/python101pythonregex) or [Python 201: Intermediate Python + Python re(gex)?](https://leanpub.com/b/python201_and_regex)

        * Python 101/201 is authored by [Michael Driscoll](https://www.blog.pythonlibrary.org/)

* See https://learnbyexample.github.io/books/ for list of other books



For a preview of the book, see [sample chapters](./sample_chapters/py_regex_sample.pdf)



The book can also be [viewed as a single markdown file in this repo](./py_regex.md). See my blogpost on [generating pdfs from markdown using pandoc](https://learnbyexample.github.io/customizing-pandoc/) if you are interested in the ebook creation process.



For the web version of the book, visit https://learnbyexample.github.io/py_regular_expressions/







# Testimonials



>I love your books on regex...As a student from the Digital VLSI space, it is indeed useful now and definitely in the future. It's really well written and really easy to understand the examples.

>

> — [feedback on reddit](https://old.reddit.com/r/Python/comments/i0m2sy/i_know_python_basics_what_next/fzql5gh/)







# Feedback and Contributing



⚠️ ⚠️ Please DO NOT submit pull requests. Main reason being any modification requires changes in multiple places.



I would highly appreciate it if you'd let me know how you felt about this book. It could be anything from a simple thank you, pointing out a typo, mistakes in code snippets, which aspects of the book worked for you (or didn't!) and so on. Reader feedback is essential and especially so for self-published authors.



You can reach me via:



* Issue Manager: [https://github.com/learnbyexample/py_regular_expressions/issues](https://github.com/learnbyexample/py_regular_expressions/issues)

* E-mail: `echo 'bGVhcm5ieWV4YW1wbGUubmV0QGdtYWlsLmNvbQo=' | base64 --decode`

* Twitter: [https://twitter.com/learn_byexample](https://twitter.com/learn_byexample)







# Table of Contents



1. Preface

2. Why is it needed?

3. re introduction

4. Anchors

5. Alternation and Grouping

6. Escaping metacharacters

7. Dot metacharacter and Quantifiers

8. Interlude: Tools for debugging and visualization

9. Working with matched portions

10. Character class

11. Groupings and backreferences

12. Interlude: Common tasks

13. Lookarounds

14. Flags

15. Unicode

16. regex module

17. Gotchas

18. Further Reading







# Acknowledgements



* [Python documentation](https://docs.python.org/3/) — manuals and tutorials

* [/r/learnpython/](https://old.reddit.com/r/learnpython/), [/r/Python/](https://old.reddit.com/r/Python/) and [/r/regex/](https://old.reddit.com/r/regex/) — helpful forums for beginners and experienced programmers alike

* [stackoverflow](https://stackoverflow.com/) — for getting answers to pertinent questions on Python and regular expressions

* [tex.stackexchange](https://tex.stackexchange.com/) — for help on [pandoc](https://github.com/jgm/pandoc/) and `tex` related questions

* [canva](https://www.canva.com/) — cover image

* [Warning](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Warning_icon.svg) and [Info](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Info_icon_002.svg) icons by [Amada44](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Amada44) under public domain

* [oxipng](https://github.com/shssoichiro/oxipng), [pngquant](https://pngquant.org/) and [svgcleaner](https://github.com/RazrFalcon/svgcleaner) — optimizing images

* [David Cortesi](https://leanpub.com/u/dcortesi) for helpful feedback on both the technical content and grammar issues

* **Kye** and [gmovchan](https://github.com/gmovchan) for spotting a typo

* **Hugh**'s email exchanges helped me significantly to improve the presentation of concepts and exercises

* [Christopher Patti](https://github.com/feoh) for reviewing the book, providing feedback and brightening the day with kind words

* Users **73tada**, **DrBobHope**, **nlomb** and others for feedback in [this reddit thread](https://old.reddit.com/r/learnpython/comments/hmvnt1/my_python_regex_ebook_with_hundreds_of_examples/)

* [mdBook](https://github.com/rust-lang/mdBook) — for web version of the book

    * [mdBook-pagetoc](https://github.com/JorelAli/mdBook-pagetoc) — for adding table of contents for each chapter

    * [minify-html](https://github.com/wilsonzlin/minify-html) — for minifying html files



Special thanks to Al Sweigart. His [Automate the Boring Stuff](https://automatetheboringstuff.com/) book was instrumental for me to get started with Python.







# License



The book is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).



The code snippets are licensed under MIT, see [LICENSE](./LICENSE) file.