Decent tool for building and testing regular expressions [duplicate]

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• A better way of doing Regex? [duplicate] 10 answers

I'm in need of a decent tool for building and testing regular expressions, what does everyone use?

I would download expresso but in my last place it turned out to be laden with adware - any clean alternatives?

Links would be much appreciated.

Answer 1

Depends what flavour of regex you're using to be honest, for example:

For a .NET regex I normally use LINQPad for testing regexes (it's really good for displaying the output of the Match() function)

I normally use firebug's console to test regexes I intend to use in javascript.

Answer 2

I tend to use Regex Buddy to test regular expressions. It isn't very expensive at $40, and even has a regular expression-to-english translation if you need it.

Answer 3

I use Rad Software Regular Expression Designer.

It's free, complete and no adware as far as I know. I like the "Language Element window" : double-click a language element to add it to your Regex.

Answer 4

http://regexpal.com/

Quick, easy, all web based with no downloads. This is a great tool if Regex isn't your bread and butter and you only need to write regular expressions every once in a while.

Answer 5

I like to use RegExr.

It's simple, and has immediate visual feedback. Also, it has a nice collection of community-submitted regexs.

Answer 6

Developing on Linux I use Kiki (available in the Ubuntu Repo's). Apparently it's available for Windows / Linux / Mac OS / BSD / Solaris.

Here's a bit of a blurb about Kiki:

A free environment for regular expression testing it allows you to write regular expressions and test them against a sample text, providing extensive output about the results. It is useful for several purposes:

• exploring and understanding the structure of match objects (handy for people new to regular expressions).
• testing regular expressions on sample text before deploying them in code.

Answer 7

Use this one for .NET: Pretty much the best regex tester I've encountered, yet.

Credit goes to herbivore of the mycsharp.de forums. Here's the link to the original thread: http://www.mycsharp.de/wbb2/thread.php?threadid=21580

Answer 8

Once I found Regex Coach, I never looked back. It has everything you would expect in a Regex Tool with one feature I haven't seen anywhere else. It allows you to step through the match string and watch the matching engine as it moves over the expression. This lets you see exactly what point of the string is causing it not to be matched. This is great for when you have a working expression, but then find out it is not matching something it should match.

Answer 9

I find it very useful to create unit tests for my regular expressions. Usually I'll have two tests: one with expected successes and one with expected failures. It's easy to make a slight "improvement" to a regular expression that subtly changes what it will match. The unit tests also document your intentions (for others and yourself in the future).

Answer 10

I use http://www.cuneytyilmaz.com/prog/jrx/ (online - limited to javascript) to test regex expressions, but that doesn't help you build them. And I thoroughly agree with Steve314's comment, you might be able to find a tool to help build it, but your successor won't have a tool to understand it.

Answer 11

I'm with Joel's comment - as far as .NET goes, I've always loved Derek Slager's Online Regex Tester, no need to install anything.

If it's a fairly simple regex, I'll often use Notepad++ to test it (though Notepad++'s regex is fairly limited).

Beyond that, using LINQPad as @Ed mentioned is a great idea.