[lug] REGEX DEVELOPMENT TOOL

[Glenn Murray]

You may want to consider a two layer approach: first to identify or
recognize the data, and second to actually parse it.  For example, if
you can identify data as represented in XML, that may allow you to use
an actual XML parser, or if you have meta data such "came from client
A" you can used that to choose which parsers.  It's really two
separate problems.

...easily visualize and grab "this from branch A and this from C and
quickly create my hybrid"---hybrid what?

Cheers,
Glenn


On Tue, May 14, 2013 at 11:56 AM, Gordon Golding <gordongoldin at aim.com> wrote:
> Looks like I will be developing a lot of regex's.
> Legacy  systems send info - client info, transactions, info about suppliers
> for the transaction, etc.. in packed text files.
> Basic structure is known, but there are so many variants, even from one
> client.
> So there needs to be a flexible library of regexs which can be re-used and
> extended.
>
> Are there any tools better than regex?  Like a powerful parser tool - like
> the front end of a compiler?
> ( I will be drawn and quartered in the public square for desecrating the
> name of regex...)
>
> After my "correction" by the Spanish Inquisition for asking the above
> question....
> What about the best tool to develop and manage a tree of Regexs?
>
> Like the way a code management system gives you the tree -
> I could see the parents and siblings and easily see differences, so I could
> easily visualize and grab "this from branch A and this from C and quickly
> create my hybrid".
>
> Gordon Golding
>
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