Regular expressions (regex) are sequences of characters that form a search pattern. They are used for matching strings of text, such as validating input, searching for specific patterns, or replacing substrings within a string. Regex can be utilized in various programming languages and tools for tasks like:
- Validation: Checking if a string conforms to a specific format (e.g., email addresses, phone numbers).
- Searching: Finding specific patterns within text (e.g., locating all occurrences of a word).
- Replacing: Substituting parts of a string with other text based on a pattern.
- Splitting: Dividing a string into an array based on a specified delimiter or pattern.
Overall, regex is a powerful tool for text processing and manipulation.
