How to ask a regex question?

[dsaba]

Hi, I thought I'd share some of my insight after seeing too many bad questions that either get ignored, rejected, or misunderstood in this forum. I'm surprised there isn't already any suggestions/guidelines in asking regex questions.

 

So you got a problem with regex? Great, here's some guidelines on asking:

1. Describe your problem or background that is important to it.

2. Give sample data (the input data, the haystack...etc..)

3. Give the expected output/matches from your sample data.

4. Give the actual output that you have if you've attempted something already.

5. Provide code if necessary, if your problem concerns it.

6. We assume its a php regex related as this is phpfreaks, but you still need to specifiy (if not obvious) if you are talking about POSIX (ereg) or PCRE (preg) flavor.

7. Be patient/grateful and don't demand things. Regex questions may take longer than expected to be answered, they're tougher sometimes.