Regular Expressions
Regular expressions (regex) are sequences of characters that define a search pattern, primarily used for string matching, validation, and manipulation in programming and text processing. They provide a concise and flexible means to identify, extract, or replace text based on specific rules, such as matching email addresses, phone numbers, or keywords. Regex is supported in most programming languages and tools, making it a cross-platform skill for handling textual data efficiently.
Developers should learn regular expressions for tasks involving text parsing, data validation, and search operations, such as validating user input in forms, extracting information from logs or documents, and performing find-and-replace in code or data files. It is essential in scenarios like web scraping, data cleaning, and configuration file processing, where precise pattern matching saves time and reduces errors compared to manual string handling.