Rejex

An intuitive and readable way to create Regular Expressions in Go using method chains. Find the documentation here

Usage

Building regex

Each method in the chain represents one segment of the final regex. Begin by creating a Rejex object using NewRejex() or NewRejexFromString() with an existing regex string. Finish building the regex with the Build() method to obtain the built regex

reg, _ := rejex.NewRejex().
        Starting().
        Characters("abcd").
        AnyDigit().
        Build()

Group constructs are created using a starting method such as BeginCaptureGroup() followed by the group contents and completed with EndGroup(). A similar method exists for selection sets (like [a-z0-9]).

reg, _ := rejex.NewRejex().
        BeginNamedCaptureGroup("groupname").
            AnyUppercase().
            AnyLowercase().
            AnyDigit().
        EndGroup().
        Build()

Note: Be mindful of passing escaped characters or characters with a preceding \, Go requires you to escape the \ for it to be passed to the method or it will be treated as a metacharacter for the compiler to be interpreted before being passed. In other words if you're passing \d or directly to a method Go will error out saying Unknown escape sequence, instead pass it as \\d. Same rule applies to metacharacters that Go does recognise like \n

Negation

Negation can only be used on character classses such as AnyDigit() or AnyFromCharRange(). To get negated selection sets either use BeginNonSelectionSet() or Not().AnyFrom().

reg, _ := rejex.NewRejex().
        BeginNamedCaptureGroup("groupname").
            AnyUppercase().
            AnyLowercase().
            Not().AnyDigit().
        EndGroup().
        Build()

Quantifiers

Quantifier methods can be provided with a string to quantify or with an empty string following a character segment to quantify said preceding segment

reg, _ := rejex.NewRejex().
        BeginNamedCaptureGroup("groupname").
            AnyUppercase().
            AnyLowercase().
            NOrMoreOf("hi", 2).
            Not().AnyDigit().OneOrMoreOf("").
        EndGroup().
        Build()

Flags

Add or remove flags using the AddFlags() and RemoveFlags() methods. These can be used anywhere in the chain before Build().

reg, _ := rejex.NewRejex().
        BeginNamedCaptureGroup("groupname").
            AnyUppercase().
            AnyLowercase().
            NOrMoreOf("hi", 2).
            Not().AnyDigit().OneOrMoreOf("").
        EndGroup().
        AddFlags(
            rejex.CaseInsensitiveFlag,
            rejex.MultilineFlag,
        ).
        Build()

Errors

The Build() method returns 2 values, the regex string and errors encountered while building it. Most errors are handled gracefully by omiting the offending segments and the error is logged. The returned error value is of type []RejexError which is a list of the errors and their positions.

reg, e = rejex.NewRejex().
        AnyDigit().
        PreferFewer().
        EndGroup().
        Build()
fmt.Printf("%#q\n%s\n", e, reg)

gives the output

Error while building regex at position 2: 'PreferFewer()' should only be used after a quantifier
Error while building regex at position 2: Cannot end group, no group open
[{'\x02' `'PreferFewer()' should only be used after a quantifier`} {'\x02' `Cannot end group, no group open`}]
\d

Notice the errors reported directly, these will be printed by default. To silence them, the constructor methods have an ignoreErrors param.

reg, e = rejex.NewRejex(true).
        AnyDigit().
        PreferFewer().
        EndGroup().
        Build()
fmt.Printf("%#q\n%s\n", e, reg)

Now this gives the output

[{'\x02' `'PreferFewer()' should only be used after a quantifier`} {'\x02' `Cannot end group, no group open`}]
\d

Flavors

The default flavor is the Go regex syntax specified in the regexp/syntax package of the standard library. To use different flavors, use the corresponding constructors.

reg, _ := rejex.NewECMARejex().
        BeginPosLookahead().
            AnyUppercase().
            AnyLowercase().
            NOrMoreOf("hi", 2).
        EndGroup().
        Build()

The supported flavors are:

• Golang
• ECMAScript
• Perl

Many flavors of regex have multiple implementations, subflavors and different default options which makes it impractical to provide a comprehensive way to generate reliable regexes. This means that the features available, or their particular syntax may be incompatible or behave differently in your particular case. It is advised that you look at the docs of the specific implementation you're using in case you need some complex regexes or the generated regex fails. You should also test that the regex behaves the way you intend to before using it in production.

Examples

An example to make a regex for UNIX file paths

reg, _ := rejex.NewRejex().
        BeginNonCaptureGroup().
            Characters("/").
            BeginSelectionSet().
                AnyFromCharRange("a", "z").
                AnyUppercase().
                AnyFrom("\\d.").
            EndSelectionSet().
            BeginSelectionSet().
                AnyLetter().
                AnyDigit().
                EscapedCharacters("-.").
            EndSelectionSet().
            NToMOf("", 0, 61).
        EndGroup().
        OneOrMoreOf("").
        Build()

creates (?:/[a-zA-Z\d.][a-zA-Z\d-\.]{0,61})+