express.py is a simple and streamlined Python 3 script to explore regular expressions.
While not as comfortable without a graphical user interface express was created as quick and simple drop-in-replacement for
abandoned Mac OS X tools like Reginald or Reggy (both only available as 32-bit builds that are no longer supported
by recent versions of macOS).
An installation of Python 3 (any version above 3.5 should do fine).
usage: express [-h] [-V] [-r REGEX] [-i] [-n] [-x] [-d] [STRING [STRING ...]]
Matches one or more input strings against a given regular expression and
highlights all potential matches.
positional arguments:
STRING One or more inputs to match against the regular
expression, alternatively/ additionally express will
read data from standard input
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-V, --version show version number and exit
-r REGEX, --regex REGEX
A regular expression to match any inputs against
[default: .]
-i, --case-insensitive
Perform matching by ignoring the case, e.g.
expressions like `[A-Z]' will match lowercase letters
too
-n, --normalize Forces Unicode's normalization form C (NFC) for all
inputs and the regular expression
-x, --extra-colors Highlight multiple matches on a single input with
alternating colors
-d, --debug Enable extra output to aid analyzing all matches and
subgroups of matches
Report bugs, request features, or provide suggestions via
https://github.com/the-real-tokai/express/issues
# basic usage, e.g. match and highlight vocals
$ express -r '[aeiou]' 'Foobar'# explore a larger dataset via stdin
$ cat data.txt | express -r '^[A-Z]'# generate a more colorful output with extra information
$ express -d -x -r 'o+' 'A gooofy goon named Goofy gobbled up a goober of gooey goop.'| 1.1 | 24-Dec-2023 | Initial public source code release |
- Reginald (Mac OS X only)
- Reggy (Mac OS X only)
- CMake's "Regular Expression Explorer"