https://github.com/ryan-endacott/verbal_expressions
Make difficult regular expressions easy! Ruby port of the awesome VerbalExpressions repo - https://github.com/jehna/VerbalExpressions
https://github.com/ryan-endacott/verbal_expressions
Last synced: 6 months ago
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Make difficult regular expressions easy! Ruby port of the awesome VerbalExpressions repo - https://github.com/jehna/VerbalExpressions
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/ryan-endacott/verbal_expressions
- Owner: ryan-endacott
- License: mit
- Created: 2013-07-22T18:07:40.000Z (over 12 years ago)
- Default Branch: master
- Last Pushed: 2023-01-09T22:10:23.000Z (almost 3 years ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-04-22T18:25:53.095Z (7 months ago)
- Language: Ruby
- Homepage:
- Size: 43.9 KB
- Stars: 571
- Watchers: 12
- Forks: 25
- Open Issues: 11
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- License: LICENSE
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README
verbal_expressions
=====================
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[](http://badge.fury.io/rb/verbal_expressions)
## Ruby Regular Expressions made easy
VerbalExpressions is a Ruby library that helps to construct difficult regular expressions - ported from the awesome JavaScript [VerbalExpressions](https://github.com/jehna/VerbalExpressions).
## How to get started
Just install with `gem install verbal_expressions`, then require the library and you're good to go!
```ruby
require 'verbal_expressions'
```
## Examples
Here's a couple of simple examples to give an idea of how VerbalExpressions works:
### Testing if we have a valid URL
```ruby
# Create an example of how to test for correctly formed URLs
tester = VerEx.new do
start_of_line
find 'http'
maybe 's'
find '://'
maybe 'www.'
anything_but ' '
end_of_line
end
# Create an example URL
test_url = "https://www.google.com"
# Use it just like a regular Ruby regex:
puts 'Hooray! It works!' if tester.match(test_url)
puts 'This works too!' if tester =~ test_url
# Print the generated regex:
puts tester.source # => /^(http)(s)?(\:\/\/)(www\.)?([^\ ]*)$/
```
### Replacing strings
```ruby
# Create a test string
replace_me = "Replace bird with a duck"
# Create an expression that seeks for word "bird"
expression = VerEx.new { find 'bird' }
# Execute the expression like a normal Regexp object
result = replace_me.gsub( expression, "duck" );
puts result # Outputs "Replace duck with a duck"
```
### Regex Capturing
```ruby
# Grab the number of goals
tester = VerEx.new do
find 'scored '
begin_capture 'goals' # Can be named or unnamed
word
end_capture
end
match = tester.match('Jerry scored 5 goals!')
puts match['goals'] # => 5
# Alternative capture syntax
tester = VerEx.new do
find 'scored '
capture('goals') { word }
end
```
## API documentation
I haven't added much documentation to this repo yet, but you can find the documentation for the original JavaScript repo on their [wiki](https://github.com/jehna/VerbalExpressions/wiki). Most of the methods have been ported as of v0.1.0 of the JavaScript repo. Just be sure to use the syntax explained above rather than the dot notation :)
## Contributions
Clone the repo and fork!
Pull requests are warmly welcomed!
## Issues
- I haven't yet ported the modifier code because Ruby Regexp handles modifiers a little differently.
- Because `or` is reserved in Ruby, `or` is currently aliased to `alternatively`. Unfortunately, `then` is also reserved, so you must use `find` instead. I'm very open to better name ideas :)
## Thanks!
Thank you to @jehna for coming up with the awesome original idea!
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