Skip to main content

Refining Regex Recommendations

100% Accuracy

Today I built an automated test so I can verify that the new regex recommendations engine is producing valid recommendations. In other words, I want to make sure that all of the recommended changes coming out of it do not affect the text that your regular expression matches. So I'm running the engine on about 2,000 regular expressions and target strings to verify its accuracy. I found a couple mistakes it was making and today's update takes care of that so we're up to 100% accuracy.

Other recommendations

I'm still working on making this feature better. And as I continue to expand on this functionality I want to also establish a concept of confidence with the recommendation engine. Thanks to today's test, I have 100% confidence in the recommendations that are in Regex Hero Professional today.

But there are other recommendations I want to create that I couldn't possibly have such confidence in. For instance, there's the issue of capturing groups vs non-capturing groups. It's a very common mistake to see a regular expression with capturing groups, and yet the captured values are never used for anything. Non-capturing groups are significantly faster and should be used instead in this scenario. But there's no way of me knowing how you're going to use the regular expression, so I can't recommend non-capturing groups with 100% confidence. So I need to create a new type of recommendation that appears differently in Regex Hero to cover scenarios like this. Look for this and more recommendations coming soon.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Installer for Desktop version of Regex Hero

As Firefox just dropped support for Silverlight I really needed a solution for Regex Hero. So I created an installer for it. It's still Silverlight, but by using the installer you can install it directly to your computer and never need to open it in a browser. If you visit regexhero.net/tester and don't have a browser that supports Silverlight (IE is the only one left), then you'll see download links for 64-bit and 32-bit versions of the installer. When you install it you'll see a link over on the right hand side that says "Activate Regex Hero". This process connects your desktop version of Regex Hero with your online account. So if you're a licensed user this is how you'll gain access to all of those licensed features. Note: Currently there will be a security warning when you try to run either one of these installers. I'm in the process of obtaining a code signing certificate and will update them as soon as possible. You may be wondering a
10 comments
Read more

Regex Hero for Windows 10 is Underway

Awhile back I began working on an HTML5 / JavaScript version of Regex Hero . However, it was a huge undertaking essentially requiring a complete rewrite of the entire application. I have not had enough time to dedicate to this lately. So I've begun again, this time rewriting Regex Hero to work in WPF. It'll be usable in Windows 10 and downloadable from the Microsoft Store. This is a much easier task that also has the advantage of running the .NET regex library from the application itself. This will allow for the same speedy experience of testing your regular expressions and getting instant feedback that Regex Hero users have always enjoyed. I expect the first release to be ready in Q4 of 2019.
2 comments
Read more

Regex Hero Professional is Now Free

Regex Hero is now completely free!  I've been working on this tool off and on for the past 8 years. I spent a lot of time making it very powerful and easy for developers to create efficient regular expressions. Throughout most of this time it's been a paid product. However, with the added pressure of other free tools out there getting better all the time, I've finally decided to make Regex Hero free as well. Enjoy! Try Regex Hero at http://regexhero.net/tester/
3 comments
Read more