Python, for all its power and popularity, has long lacked a form of flow control found in other languages—a way to take a value and match it elegantly against one of a number of possible conditions.

This article explains what regex (or regular expressions) is and how to get started using it with web crawlers, plus some interesting real-world use cases. One technology skill that is too-often ...

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Quick: If you shout "regular expressions" in a crowd of Linux users, what happens? Answer: Everyone will tell you the right way to use them, and every answer will be different. Regular expressions -- ...