Relearning Regular Expressions
While writing an Alfred workflow, I hit many text‑processing problems and doubled down on regex. Although every language course touches regex early, my skills were rusty. I took the chance to study properly; here are my takeaways.
Why regex matters
Regex is the Swiss army knife of text processing — unavoidable for many tasks. For example, extracting multiple metadata fields from Markdown is quickest with regex.
The right mental model
I avoided regex because I feared “hard parts” like lookarounds. The fix was reframing:
- Assertions match positions (zero‑width); lookahead/lookbehind choose direction; positive/negative choose condition (must match vs. must not).
- Metacharacters match content; assertions match positions; add in grouping, repetition, and greediness/laziness — that’s most of it.
Don’t fear it; practice deliberately; then apply correctly in the right scenarios.
Recommended resources
Final Thoughts
With the mindset corrected and concepts organized, I can finally use regex effectively. As with JS itself: understand it properly, practice intentionally, reflect in use — familiarity grows into mastery.
