ISO regex analysis and debugging tools

[kj]

I'm trying to debug some code not written by me. The problem lies
in a regular expression that is generated dynamically by the program,
and depends on user input. The bug shows up only with certain
inputs, and, unfortunately, for such inputs the problematic regex
turns out to be huge and hairy. To make matters worse, it makes
heavy use of (?{...}) constructs.

I've stared at this monster regex for a while now, but I'm getting
nowhere. I'm looking for some tools to help me analyze and debug
this thing.

For starters, a regex pretty-printer would be a huge help.

Also, anything like a regex debugger would be a godsend. Is there
such a thing?

Any other tool I should be aware of?

Thanks!

kj

 

[Paul Lalli]

Also, anything like a regex debugger would be a godsend. Is there
such a thing?

use re 'debug';

Paul Lalli

 

[ekkehard.horner]

I'm trying to debug some code not written by me. The problem lies
in a regular expression that is generated dynamically by the program,
and depends on user input. The bug shows up only with certain
inputs, and, unfortunately, for such inputs the problematic regex
turns out to be huge and hairy. To make matters worse, it makes
heavy use of (?{...}) constructs.

I've stared at this monster regex for a while now, but I'm getting
nowhere. I'm looking for some tools to help me analyze and debug
this thing.

For starters, a regex pretty-printer would be a huge help.

Also, anything like a regex debugger would be a godsend. Is there
such a thing?

Any other tool I should be aware of?

Thanks!

kj

Have a look at
http://weitz.de/regex-coach/