{"id":179726,"date":"2024-05-01T11:20:19","date_gmt":"2024-05-01T10:20:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/datascientest.com\/en\/?p=179726"},"modified":"2024-02-25T12:33:09","modified_gmt":"2024-02-25T11:33:09","slug":"demystifying-regular-expressions-regex-definition-and-practical-usage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/datascientest.com\/en\/demystifying-regular-expressions-regex-definition-and-practical-usage","title":{"rendered":"Demystifying Regular Expressions (Regex): Definition and Practical Usage"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"179726\" class=\"elementor elementor-179726\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-9660017 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con\" data-id=\"9660017\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-settings=\"{&quot;content_width&quot;:&quot;boxed&quot;}\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-4bf24cd elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"4bf24cd\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.15.0 - 02-08-2023 *\/\n.elementor-heading-title{padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title[class*=elementor-size-]>a{color:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-small{font-size:15px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-medium{font-size:19px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-large{font-size:29px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xl{font-size:39px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xxl{font-size:59px}<\/style><h2 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">In the world of computing, we are often called upon to perform word-processing tasks. There's a universal tool called regex, which often presents the most powerful solutions in this field. However, regular expressions suffer from a general lack of understanding of how they work, due to their sometimes... confusing appearance.<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-f1c14e8 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con\" data-id=\"f1c14e8\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-settings=\"{&quot;content_width&quot;:&quot;boxed&quot;}\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-5e4ded9 elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"5e4ded9\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<h3 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">What is a regular expression?<\/h3>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-eab676f elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"eab676f\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.15.0 - 02-08-2023 *\/\n.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked .elementor-drop-cap{background-color:#69727d;color:#fff}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-framed .elementor-drop-cap{color:#69727d;border:3px solid;background-color:transparent}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap{margin-top:8px}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap-letter{width:1em;height:1em}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap{float:left;text-align:center;line-height:1;font-size:50px}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap-letter{display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t<p>A <strong>regular expression<\/strong>, also more commonly known as a<strong> regex<\/strong>, is at first glance a simple string of characters. What makes it different? A special syntax which, when interpreted, describes a larger set of strings. This descriptive string is called a pattern.<\/p><p>It&#8217;s not a programming language in the strict sense of the term: virtually all languages have a regex library for regular expressions. What&#8217;s more, syntax varies very little from one language to the next, making compatibility between different platforms much easier &#8211; hence the term &#8220;universal&#8221; used in the introduction.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-8a42ad0 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con\" data-id=\"8a42ad0\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-settings=\"{&quot;content_width&quot;:&quot;boxed&quot;}\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-27977d6 elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"27977d6\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<h3 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">What's the point of a regular expression?<\/h3>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-2f73643 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"2f73643\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>As you may have guessed, regexes enable us to isolate a certain type of text and carry out specific processing on the samples taken.<\/p><p>The simplest case is to replace one word with another in a document. We can also reduce our tolerance by allowing certain deviations. Here&#8217;s an example:<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-74aa8af elementor-widget elementor-widget-shortcode\" data-id=\"74aa8af\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"shortcode.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-shortcode\"><script src=\"https:\/\/gist.github.com\/victorDST\/ab6ac9364f29415396fd076e5a9a995f.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-3b6484c elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"3b6484c\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p style=\"text-align: center;\">This code locates occurrences of the expression &#8220;regex&#8221; and its variants in the paragraph and replaces them with &#8220;regular expression(s)&#8221;.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-ff05dd6 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"ff05dd6\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>Other uses for regexes exist in <a href=\"https:\/\/datascientest.com\/en\/cybersecurity-the-ultimate-guide\">cybersecurity<\/a>: in general, when you create an account on a new site, it requires a password that respects a certain number of rules. To check that the password you insert does not conflict with the contract, a regex is applied. Similarly, when entering a valid e-mail address, you need to ensure the presence of the arobase (to name but one constraint); this is relatively easy to transcribe in terms of regexes.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-96e898a elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"96e898a\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.15.0 - 02-08-2023 *\/\n.elementor-widget-image{text-align:center}.elementor-widget-image a{display:inline-block}.elementor-widget-image a img[src$=\".svg\"]{width:48px}.elementor-widget-image img{vertical-align:middle;display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<figure class=\"wp-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/datascientest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Fichier-128-e1680030182839.png\" title=\"\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<figcaption class=\"widget-image-caption wp-caption-text\">The code to check whether an e-mail address is valid (make a version in DST colors)<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-4530b05 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"4530b05\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>Finally, regexes can be found in automatic natural language processing (NLP), webscraping, pattern recognition&#8230; This list is by no means exhaustive, and you will most certainly be asked to solve a Data Science problem involving them!<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-4c63753 elementor-align-center button-principale elementor-widget elementor-widget-button\" data-id=\"4c63753\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"button.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-button-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t<a class=\"elementor-button elementor-button-link elementor-size-sm elementor-animation-grow\" href=\"https:\/\/datascientest.com\/en\/data-courses\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"elementor-button-content-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"elementor-button-text\">Learn how to use regex<\/span>\n\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-571cd6f e-flex e-con-boxed e-con\" data-id=\"571cd6f\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-settings=\"{&quot;content_width&quot;:&quot;boxed&quot;}\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-a7b5dfe elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"a7b5dfe\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<h3 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">A very controversial appearance<\/h3>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-0296185 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"0296185\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>It&#8217;s this indigestible aspect that detracts from this tool, which is far from complicated to master! In fact, there are only a handful of laws governing this syntax, which we&#8217;re going to try and break down.<\/p><p>Let&#8217;s take a look at the following expression:<\/p><p>[regex to determine a valid nickname (make an image in color and in several parts)]<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-73fb2ba elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"73fb2ba\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/datascientest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Fichier-129.png\" title=\"\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-6747182 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"6747182\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>To <strong>determine how a regex works<\/strong>, the first step is to break it down into several subgroups. The concept of groups exists in formal terms: they are delimited by parentheses. Some parentheses are not capturing (such as those associated with a lookahead), but as a general rule, each group is counted in order of parenthesis opening.<\/p><p>A group can be capturing or non-capturing by entering the &#8220;?:&#8221; characters at the beginning of the parenthesis. To be clearer, a capturing group is a subset of the global pattern that can be isolated during a pattern search.<\/p><ul><li><strong>The circumflex &#8220;^&#8221;<\/strong> at the beginning of a list is a special character; it means that the regular expression only captures occurrences at the beginning of the line.<\/li><li>Conversely, the dollar sign $ ensures that the end of the occurrence corresponds to the end of a line.<\/li><li><strong>[A-Z\u00c9]:<\/strong> When square brackets are present, this means that we accept one (and only one, if there is no further indication, as is the case here) character from the set provided. A-Z corresponds to &#8220;any letter between uppercase A and uppercase Z&#8221; (case-sensitive!), to which we add the letter \u00c9. This first part of the regex therefore captures an uppercase letter.<\/li><li><strong>(pattern)+:<\/strong> the + sign captures patterns between 1 and an infinite number of times.<\/li><li><strong>((pattern1)|(pattern2)):<\/strong> the symbol | means &#8220;we capture either pattern1 or pattern2&#8221;.<\/li><li><strong>( ([a-z\u00e9\u00e8\u00e0\\- ])(?!\\3{2}) ):<\/strong> the first parenthesis works in the same way as the first group. Only characters present in the bracket are captured; from lower-case a to z, then accents, a space, and the special character -. To call a specific character, add a back-slash .<\/li><li>The second parenthesis is a negative lookahead. A lookahead, as its name implies, observes the continuation of the string and adds a condition so that the expression can be applied.<\/li><li>Here, this translates into the condition &#8220;the expression ([a-z\u00e9\u00e8\u00e0\\- ]) captures text only if it is not followed by the expression \\3{2}&#8221;.<br \/>\\3{2} : When a number is escaped (i.e. preceded by \\), it refers to the associated group. \\3 thus corresponds to the third group of the regex!<\/li><li>On the other hand, if a number is enclosed in braces, it indicates the exact number of occurrences of the preceding group.<br \/>In other words, this pattern means &#8220;capture a character from the set [a-z\u00e9\u00e8\u00e0\\- ] provided it is repeated no more than twice&#8221;.<\/li><li><strong>(?&lt;=\\s)([A-Z\u00c9])(?![A-Z\u00c9])<\/strong>: as with a lookahead, the first group of parentheses is a positive lookbehind. \\s captures any white space (a space, a tab). Following the same logic, we guess that this expression translates into the sentence &#8220;captures an uppercase letter (A, B, &#8230;, Z, or \u00c9) only if it is preceded by a white space and NOT followed by another uppercase letter&#8221;.<\/li><li>Finally, (.+) means that we accept any character without limit.<\/li><\/ul>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-4c9346b elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"4c9346b\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>With all these rules in place, this whole regex suddenly becomes very intuitive!<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-83c2405 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con\" data-id=\"83c2405\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-settings=\"{&quot;content_width&quot;:&quot;boxed&quot;}\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-68b65dd elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"68b65dd\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<h3 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">regex101: a platform for checking your regexes<\/h3>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-312a21f elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"312a21f\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>To check the behavior of a freshly created expression, there&#8217;s a handy site: <a href=\"https:\/\/regex101.com\/\">https:\/\/regex101.com\/<\/a><\/p><p>With this interface, enter your regex and the associated programming language, then enter any character string in the dedicated space. When the pattern captures text, it will be highlighted and read by the site.<\/p><p>If the previous section left you wondering, take a look at the text it does (or doesn&#8217;t) capture:<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-0a967ea elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"0a967ea\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<figure class=\"wp-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/datascientest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/image2-5.png\" title=\"\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<figcaption class=\"widget-image-caption wp-caption-text\"><\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-b01da31 elementor-align-center button-principale elementor-widget elementor-widget-button\" data-id=\"b01da31\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"button.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-button-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t<a class=\"elementor-button elementor-button-link elementor-size-sm elementor-animation-grow\" href=\"https:\/\/datascientest.com\/en\/data-courses\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"elementor-button-content-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"elementor-button-text\">Regex training<\/span>\n\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-1c4a4d4 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"1c4a4d4\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>This pattern takes only valid pseudonyms according to a defined syntax.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-06b11d3 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con\" data-id=\"06b11d3\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-settings=\"{&quot;content_width&quot;:&quot;boxed&quot;}\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-77149bb elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"77149bb\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<h3 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">To sum up<\/h3>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-ef81ab6 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"ef81ab6\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><em>Regexes<\/em> are both simple to use and extremely versatile; mastering this tool is a major asset. While it&#8217;s usually possible to solve a problem without using regexes, the regex solution is often the most effective of all.<\/p><p>We have a cheat sheet on regexes to help you practice:<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-cdfd465 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"cdfd465\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>Take a look at our <a href=\"https:\/\/datascientest.com\/en\/nlp-training-become-an-nlp-pro-and-master-the-art-of-natural-language-processing\">NLP training courses<\/a>. NLP is one of the most prolific areas of AI in the news, and you can read our article on how the famous ChatGPT works to see for yourself!<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-51df8b2 elementor-align-center button-principale elementor-widget elementor-widget-button\" data-id=\"51df8b2\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"button.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-button-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t<a class=\"elementor-button elementor-button-link elementor-size-sm elementor-animation-grow\" href=\"https:\/\/datascientest.com\/en\/data-scientist-course\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"elementor-button-content-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"elementor-button-text\">Discover our SQL training<\/span>\n\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-2b67322 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con\" data-id=\"2b67322\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-settings=\"{&quot;content_width&quot;:&quot;boxed&quot;}\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-ac8fc18 elementor-widget elementor-widget-html\" data-id=\"ac8fc18\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"html.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">\n{\n  \"@context\": \"https:\/\/schema.org\",\n  \"@type\": \"FAQPage\",\n  \"mainEntity\": [{\n    \"@type\": \"Question\",\n    \"name\": \"What is a regular expression?\",\n    \"acceptedAnswer\": {\n      \"@type\": \"Answer\",\n      \"text\": \"A regular expression, also more commonly known as a regex, is at first sight a simple character string. 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However, regular expressions suffer from a general lack of understanding of how they work, due to their sometimes&#8230; confusing appearance. What is a regular expression? [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":179729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","inline_featured_image":false},"categories":[2425],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.7 (Yoast SEO v21.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Demystifying Regular Expressions (Regex): Definition and Practical Usage<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Discover what regular expressions (Regex) are and how to effectively use them in various applications. 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