In the right hands regular expressions can be a powerful tool, but it’s also far too easy for them to be used badly, or in the wrong situations.

This talk will kick off with a look at alternatives to regular expressions, for when the power of pattern matching is not required, and will also go over some cases when there are better alternatives available.
Then there will be a brief refresher on pattern syntax and some general tips and tricks to help when constructing regular expressions, before we go on to look at some situations where the use of pattern matching is a good fit, how to solve some common problems, and some common pitfalls when writing patterns.