Regular Expressions Questions and Answers

Solid and well-organised. A couple of chapters dragged a little.

I had been on the fence about this one for a while, and I should have bought it sooner. A couple of chapters felt like they could have been merged, but that is a minor complaint. The early chapters move quickly through material I already knew, but the later sections were genuinely new to me. Four stars, and I suspect a second edition could easily push it to five.

The clearest explanation of regular expressions I have come across.

I bought this on a whim after seeing it mentioned in a forum thread, and I am glad I did. The index and cross-references are surprisingly good, which matters for a book I will come back to. Some of the diagrams are dense and I had to reread a few sections, though that may just be me. If you have the prerequisites, this is an easy recommendation. I will be keeping it on my desk rather than the shelf.