Question

I've used RegexBuddy several times and found it to be a really useful tool. Is there anything like it in the open source world, preferably something that is platform agnostic? (the fact that regexbuddy is windows only is a real downer)

The only thing I've been able to find is Kodos ^[1], which I've also used quite a lot, but it doesn't quite have the features of regexbuddy.

[1] http://kodos.sourceforge.net/about.html

Answer 1

QuickRex ^[1] is an eclipse plugin, and can be used on many java-compliant platform, for many implementations of Regular Expressions in the Java-world:

JDK Regular Expressions ^[2] (available since 1.4)
Jakarta ORO ^[3] Perl-style Regular Expressions (ORO-Version 2.0.8, supports Perl 5.003 Regular Expressions)
Jakarta ORO Awk-style ^[4] Regular Expressions (ORO-Version 2.0.8)
JRegex ^[5] Regular Expressions (Version 1.2_01, supports Perl 5.6 Regular Expressions)
Jakarta-Regexp ^[6] Regular Expressions (Version 1.4)

It is also now a standalone application ^[7] but for windows only for now.

[1] http://www.easyeclipse.org/site/plugins/quickrex.html
[2] http://java.sun.com
[3] http://jakarta.apache.org/oro/index.html
[4] http://jakarta.apache.org/oro/index.html
[5] http://jregex.sourceforge.net
[6] http://jakarta.apache.org/regexp/index.html
[7] http://bastian-bergerhoff.com/eclipse/features/web/QuickREx/standalone.html

Answer 2

KDE has a nice one called KRegexpEditor ^[1] that's pretty helpful.

There's also regexxer ^[2] if you prefer GTK.

[1] http://linux.about.com/b/2007/04/18/kregexpeditor-fun-with-regular-expressions.htm
[2] http://regexxer.sourceforge.net/

Answer 3

I suggest taking a look at The Regulator ^[1], it's probably as close to RB as you're going to get!

[1] http://sourceforge.net/projects/regulator/

Answer 4

According to a colleague of mine RegexBuddy works very well on different platforms using Wine: http://www.winehq.org/.

Unless you want to use only opensource software for philosophical reasons I would really recommend spending the $40 to buy a license--It will pay for itself in time saved.

Answer 5

web-based reg-ex evaluator: http://www.rexv.org/

It's not as thorough as RegexBuddy, but it's platform agnostic, free, and works in 90% of the situations in which I want to use RegexBuddy.

(then again, I often just run RegexBuddy in wine if I'm on linux)

Answer 6

The Regex Coach ^[1] is excellent although it is not open source and Windows only, but there is an older version for Linux. Amusing note: it is written in Lisp. The above page also links to a Java version (written actually in Groovy, as it seems) which is open source.

JRegexpTester ^[2] is written in Java, so portable.

REGex TESTER ^[3] is yet another Web-based tester, it supports JavaScript RE syntax, of course, but also both PHP syntaxes (Perl style and Posix style).

Also Web based, Regular Expression Test Page ^[4] to test Java syntax.

I have also a PCRE Workbench, written in Delphi, still for Windows...

[1] http://www.weitz.de/regex-coach/
[2] http://jregexptester.sourceforge.net/
[3] http://www.regextester.com/
[4] http://www.fileformat.info/tool/regex.htm

Answer 7

I commonly use: RegexLib.com ^[1] the ads can be annoying, but at least it is online so I never have to install anything.

[1] http://regexlib.com/RETester.aspx

Answer 8

Not sure if this is exactly what you are looking for, but the most interesting regex tool I've found online in quite a long while is txt2re.com ^[1]

[1] http://www.txt2re.com/

Answer 9

Your best bet is to use 2 tools from Roy Osherove.. Regulator and Regulazy. Regulator is similar to RegEx Buddy, it allows you to test and validate your regular expressions but Regulazy takes a unique approach of allowing you type in the text you want to match and it generates the regex for you.

You can get both from: http://osherove.com/tools

Answer 10

I've never used RegexBuddy, but if you want a cross platform tool that supports multiple regular expressions language, redet ^[1] is an excellent candidate to consider. It does depend on having a tcl/tk runtime with the incr widgets library. The lowest friction path is to get ActiveTcl ^[2], but manually installing the incr Widgets (and incr tcl/tk) from the sourceforge download page ^[3] is also pretty simple.

[1] http://www.billposer.org/Software/redet.html
[2] http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActiveTcl
[3] http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=13244

Answer 11

There is RadSoftware's Regex Designer ^[1], it's very useful and is free but not open source ( no idea why).

[1] http://www.radsoftware.com.au/regexdesigner

Answer 12

I use an Eclipse plug-in called Regex Tester. You can find information about it here ^[1]. It has a live evaluation feature, which is really cool because you can see what parts of a sample string will match while you're still typing the regular expression. I find it to be extremely helpful.

[1] http://www.brosinski.com/regex/

Answer 13

I regularly use Expresso ^[1]. It can generate source code for your regex. I pretty like the detail tree that break down any regex.

[1] http://www.ultrapico.com/Expresso.htm

Answer 14

I'll push Pythex ^[1] on to this list. A nice, simple web-based regexp evaluator that uses the python re module.

[1] http://pythex.appspot.com/

Answer 15

I didn't see anyone post this one that I came across recently on SourceForge: Regex Evaluator ^[1]

Since it's written in Java, it's definitely cross-platform.

[1] http://sourceforge.net/projects/regexevaluator/

Answer 16

Edit: in addition to the web-based ones below, just found a couple more older ones (via Regular Expression GUI? - perlmonks.org ^[1] and I mentioned a regular expression coach ... - BrainLog ^[2]):

ReBug: A Regular Expression Debugger in Perl (archive.org) ^[3] (.tar.gz can be downloaded from the same page): cannot display large text, but can "step-animate" the regex steps:
Visual REGEXP : a graphical explorer for your regexps ^[4]: can be sudo apt-get install visual-regexp in Ubuntu; no "live" update when typing, but still seems decent:

Similar SO questions:

Also adding these for online web-based:

http://regex.powertoy.org/ - made in Javascript-to-Java ^[9], open-source, "live" update when typing (a bit sluggish, though):
http://gskinner.com/RegExr/ - made in Flash [Flex/ActionScript 3] ( likely not ^[10] open-source), "live" update when typing:
Atomic Jetpacks - A JavaScript regular expression tester ^[11]; JavaScript; no live update - but I like the explanations, shown on mouse over match highlights:

[1] http://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=157925
[2] http://www.dansanderson.com/blog/2004/03/i-mentioned-a-r.html
[3] http://web.archive.org/web/20060430114445/http://www.jall.org/perl/rebug/
[4] http://laurent.riesterer.free.fr/regexp/
[5] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2348694/how-do-you-debug-a-regex
[6] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12003802/online-regex-tester
[7] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/32282/regex-testing-tools
[8] http://stackoverflow.com/questions/247312/what-is-the-best-test-as-you-type-online-regex-testing-app?lq=1
[9] http://regex.powertoy.org/Technical.html
[10] http://gskinner.com/blog/archives/2008/03/regexr_free_onl.html
[11] http://www.atomicjetpacks.com/project/regextester/a-javascript-regular-expression-tester

Answer 17

My favorite for PHP regex checker tool : http://regexp.zug.fr/

Answer 18

This one is golden as well, more of an interactive one... but definitely handy since it generates cross-language variants: Txt2regex ^[1]

[1] http://aurelio.net/txt2regex/

Answer 19

One thing this page does not list is what tools are suitable for what regex-aware programming languages or utilities. For example, egrep/sed/perl/php/C etc. may have different regex "curiosities" and as such it would be good if each answer listed what tools and programming languages are supported.

Also adding http://www.weitz.de/regex-coach/ (for Perl compatible regexes)

Answer 20

I would suggest http://www.regex101.com/.

It provides an automatic explanation to the regular expression, finds errors in it and shows you what it matches.