to quote another answer : > Regular expressions are a very terse way to express how to match > patterns in text. So if this is an important part of your job there is probably a better way to design the system you are developing. Unless lots of text is domain specific to your area (eg bioinformatics). I have worked on three different enterprise systems (at three different companies over ten years) and I've written them less than five times, and that includes copy and pasting a basic e-mail validator twice.