\documentclass[ solutions, hidewarning, ]{../../resources/ormc_handout} \usepackage{../../resources/macros} \usepackage{xcolor} \usepackage{soul} \usepackage{hyperref} \usepackage[T1]{fontenc} % Fixes texttt braces \definecolor{Light}{gray}{.90} \sethlcolor{Light} \newcommand{\htexttt}[1]{\texttt{\hl{#1}}} \title{The Regex Warm-Up} \uptitler{\smallurl{}} \subtitle{Prepared by Mark on \today} \begin{document} \maketitle Last time, we discussed Deterministic Finite Automata. One interesting application of these mathematical objects is found in computer science: Regular Expressions. \par This is often abbreviated \say{regex}, which is pronounced like \say{gif.} \vspace{2mm} Regex is a language used to specify patterns in a string. You can think of it as a concise way to define a DFA, using text instead of a huge graph. \par Often enough, a clever regex pattern can do the work of a few hundred lines of code. \vspace{2mm} Like the DFAs we've studied, a regex pattern \textit{accepts} or \textit{rejects} a string. However, we don't usually use this terminology with regex, and instead say that a string \textit{matches} or \textit{doesn't match} a pattern. \vspace{5mm} Regex strings consist of characters, quantifiers, sets, and groups. \vspace{5mm} \textbf{Quantifiers} \par Quantifiers specify how many of a character to match. \par There are four of these: \htexttt{+}, \htexttt{*}, \htexttt{?}, and \htexttt{\{ \}} \vspace{2mm} \htexttt{+} means \say{match one or more of the preceding token} \par \htexttt{*} means \say{match zero or more of the preceding token} For example, the pattern \htexttt{ca+t} will match the following strings: \begin{itemize} \item \texttt{cat} \item \texttt{caat} \item \texttt{caaaaaaaat} \end{itemize} \htexttt{ca+t} will \textbf{not} match the string \texttt{ct}. \par The pattern \htexttt{ca*t} will match all the strings above, including \texttt{ct}. \vspace{2mm} \htexttt{?} means \say{match one or none of the preceding token} \par The pattern \htexttt{linea?r} will match only \texttt{linear} and \texttt{liner}. \vspace{2mm} Brackets \htexttt{\{min, max\}} are the most flexible quantifier. \par They specify exactly how many tokens to match: \par \htexttt{ab\{2\}a} will match only \texttt{abba}. \par \htexttt{ab\{1,3\}a} will match only \texttt{aba}, \texttt{abba}, and \texttt{abbba}. \par % spell:off \htexttt{ab\{2,\}a} will match any \texttt{ab...ba} with at least two \texttt{b}s. % spell:on \vspace{5mm} \problem{} Write the patterns \htexttt{a*} and \htexttt{a+} using only \htexttt{\{ \}}. \vfill \problem{} Draw a DFA equivalent to the regex pattern \htexttt{01*0}. \vfill \pagebreak \textbf{Characters, Sets, and Groups} \par In the previous section, we saw how we can specify characters literally: \par \texttt{a+} means \say{one or more \texttt{a} character} \vspace{2mm} There are, of course, other ways we can specify characters. \vspace{2mm} The first such way is the \textit{set}, denoted \htexttt{[ ]}. A set can pretend to be any character inside it. \par For example, \htexttt{m[aoy]th} will match \texttt{math}, \texttt{moth}, or \texttt{myth}. \par \htexttt{a[01]+b} will match \texttt{a0b}, \texttt{a111b}, \texttt{a1100110b}, and any other similar string. \par You may negate a set with a \htexttt{\textasciicircum}. \par \htexttt{[\textasciicircum abc]} will match any character except \texttt{a}, \texttt{b}, or \texttt{c}, including symbols and spaces. \vspace{2mm} If we want to keep characters together, we can use the \textit{group}, denoted \htexttt{( )}. \par Groups work exactly as you'd expect, representing an atomic\footnotemark{} group of characters. \par \htexttt{a(01)+b} will match \texttt{a01b} and \texttt{a010101b}, but will \textbf{not} match \texttt{a0b}, \texttt{a1b}, or \texttt{a1100110b}. \footnotetext{In other words, \say{unbreakable}} \problem{} You are now familiar with most of the tools regex has to offer. \par Write patterns that match the following strings: \begin{enumerate}[itemsep=1mm] \item An ISO-8601 date, like \texttt{2022-10-29}. \par \hint{Invalid dates like \texttt{2022-13-29} should also be matched.} \item An email address. \par \hint{Don't forget about subdomains, like \texttt{math.ucla.edu}.} \item A UCLA room number, like \texttt{MS 5118} or \texttt{Kinsey 1220B}. \item Any ISBN-10 of the form \texttt{0-316-00395-7}. \par \hint{Remember that the check digit may be an \texttt{X}. Dashes are optional.} \item A word of even length. \par \hint{The set \texttt{[A-z]} contains every english letter, capitalized and lowercase. \\ \texttt{[a-z]} will only match lowercase letters.} \item A word with exactly 3 vowels. \par \hint{The special token \texttt{\textbackslash w} will match any word character. It is equivalent to \texttt{[A-z0-9\_]} \\ \texttt{\_} stands for a literal underscore.} \item A word that has even length and exactly 3 vowels. \item A sentence that does not start with a capital letter. \end{enumerate} \vfill \problem{} If you'd like to know more, check out \url{https://regexr.com}. It offers an interactive regex prompt, as well as a cheatsheet that explains every other regex token there is. \par You will find a nice set of challenges at \url{https://alf.nu/RegexGolf}. I especially encourage you to look into this if you are interested in computer science. \end{document}