
452
|
Chapter 13, Enhancing Visual Studio
#100 Test Regular Expressions in Visual Studio
HACK
Find More Regular Expressions
The other functionality built into RegExinator is the ability to search the
Regular Expressions Library from right inside Visual Studio. The Regular
Expression Library (http://www.regexlib.com) is a web site that contains a
plethora of extremely useful regular expressions cataloged by their use. It is
a great resource to know about when trying to figure out a complicated reg-
ular expression. If you wanted to find a regular expression that would match
both United States and European style phone numbers, you would have no
problem finding one in the library. RegExLib also exposes a great set of Web
Services that can be used to search the library; these services are what makes
integration with RegExinator possible.
To search the library using RegExinator, you simply need to click the
RegExLib tab and you will see a simple text box labeled Search. Enter your
search criteria in this text box and click the Run button, and you will then
see the results as shown in Figure 13-26.
Each node in the window is a regular expression that was found in RegEx-
Lib. Below each node are examples of what the regular expression will
match, what it won’t match, and a brief description of the expression. When
Figure 13-26. RegExLib search results