Regular Expressions is a series of characters and numerals put together to match the strings easily in various programming languages. Regular Expressions are often abbreviated as RegEx or simply regex. Knowledge of RegEx is essential for some programming languages specially those related to the scripting and web designing. For example, a programmer who is expert in RegEx is going to create better and shorter PHP and ASPX scripts. With the help of RegEx we can carry out search and replace operations in a single line that would other wise take multiple lines of code.
If you are writing RegEx code and want to test it first, then you can use a freeware tool called BinaryMagic RegEx Editor. This tool is also useful for the students who are trying to hone their RegEx skills after their classroom lessons. If you are trying to learn RegEx through a book like Mastering Regular Expressions by Jeffrey Friedl.
RegEx Editor is a portable program. We do not have to install it on our Windows PC, we can start using it right away. In the user interface of the RegEx Editor window, we can see four text input sections. In the original text section, we have to copy/paste the source text which we want to operate upon.
In the Search and Replace patterns, we have to enter the RegEx strings. The editor comes with a very convenient toolbar using which we can enter various special characters, ranges and more to help you build the RegEx strings.
Now if you click on the Matches button, you will see the results of the search operations using the RegEx. If you click on the Replace button, you will see the results of the search and replacement operations. In case there is an error or the results are not as expected, you can the change the RegEx strings and try again.
You can download free BinaryMagic RegEx Editor from https://www.binarymark.com/products/free-regex-editor.