I've been writing regex for 3 years now and I still feel like I'm guessing half the time. The power is undeniable — a single regex can replace 50 lines of string parsing code. But reading someone else's regex is like reading hieroglyphics.

Do you love regex or dread it? Any tips for getting better?

You know the famous quote: 'Some people, when confronted with a problem, think "I know, I'll use regular expressions." Now they have two problems.' I feel this deeply.

RegexBuddy is a great tool for building and testing regex visually. Also Perl's /x modifier lets you add comments and whitespace to make regex readable.

The trick is building up from simple patterns. Start matching simple strings, then add one feature at a time. Don't try to write a complex regex from scratch.