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regular expressions 101 VS explainshell

Compare regular expressions 101 VS explainshell and see what are their differences

regular expressions 101 logo regular expressions 101

Extensive regex tester and debugger with highlighting for PHP, PCRE, Python and JavaScript.

explainshell logo explainshell

Match command-line arguments to their help.
  • regular expressions 101 Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-30
  • explainshell Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-08-07

regular expressions 101 features and specs

  • Interactive Learning
    Regex101 provides an interactive environment where users can test and learn regular expressions in real-time, making the learning process more engaging and practical.
  • Extensive Documentation
    The site offers extensive documentation and references for different regular expression flavors (PCRE, JavaScript, Python, and Golang), facilitating easy access to syntax and usage examples.
  • Error Highlighting
    Regex101 highlights errors in your regular expressions and provides explanations, which helps users quickly identify and correct mistakes.
  • Quick Reference
    A quick reference guide is available on the platform, which helps users look up common regular expression tokens and their meanings without leaving the page.
  • Saved Workspaces
    Users can save their regular expressions and test cases in workspaces, making it convenient to revisit and continue working on them at a later time.
  • Community Support
    The platform has community features wherein users can share their regular expressions and get feedback or suggestions from others.

Possible disadvantages of regular expressions 101

  • Limited to Browser
    Regex101 is a web-based tool, and its usage is restricted to browsers with internet access, limiting its offline availability and performance in a development environment.
  • User Interface Complexity
    For beginners, the user interface can be somewhat overwhelming due to the numerous options and features available, leading to a steeper learning curve.
  • Performance Limitations
    While sufficient for most use cases, Regex101 may struggle with very large datasets or extremely complex regular expressions, causing performance issues.
  • Dependency on External Product
    Relying on an external service means users are dependent on the platform's availability and continued maintenance, which can be a risk if the service goes down or changes significantly.
  • Potential Overreliance
    Frequent use of Regex101 for developing regular expressions may lead to an overreliance on the tool, potentially hindering the development of strong, intrinsic regex skills.

explainshell features and specs

  • User-Friendly Interface
    Explainshell provides a clean and easy-to-navigate interface, making it accessible for users with different experience levels.
  • Command Line Breakdown
    It breaks down complex command-line statements into simpler parts, explaining each part's function in detail.
  • Educational Tool
    Serves as a great learning resource for beginners and intermediate users who want to understand shell commands in depth.
  • Library of Commands
    Leverages the extensive `man` page collection to provide detailed explanations of a wide variety of commands.
  • Web-Based Accessibility
    Being a web-based tool, it is accessible from any device with an internet connection, without needing any additional software installation.

Possible disadvantages of explainshell

  • Dependency on `man` Pages
    The tool relies on `man` pages for explanations, which might not cover all edge cases or the latest versions of commands.
  • Internet Requirement
    Requires an internet connection to use, limiting its accessibility in offline scenarios.
  • Limited to Shell Commands
    Focused solely on shell commands, it doesn't cover other scripting languages or programming environments.
  • No Live Execution
    Cannot execute commands or provide real-time feedback; it's purely an explanatory tool.
  • Potential Outdated Information
    The explanations might occasionally be based on older versions of `man` pages, potentially missing out on new features or changes.

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to regular expressions 101 and explainshell)
Regular Expressions
100 100%
0% 0
Productivity
80 80%
20% 20
Programming Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Mac
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, regular expressions 101 should be more popular than explainshell. It has been mentiond 881 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

regular expressions 101 mentions (881)

  • Regex Isn't Hard (2023)
    In practice, the first unpaired ] is treated as an ordinary character (at least according to https://regex101.com/) - which does nothing to make this regex fit for its intended purpose. I'm not sure whether this is according to spec. (I think it is, though that does not really matter compared to what the implementations actually do.) Characters which are sometimes special, depending on context, are one more thing... - Source: Hacker News / 19 days ago
  • Regex Isn't Hard (2023)
    > unreadable once written (to me anyway) https://regex101.com can explain your regex back to you. - Source: Hacker News / 19 days ago
  • Catching Trailing Spaces - A Superhero's Story!
    To try out our newfound regex, I will use the website called RegEx101. It's a superhero favourite, so you better bookmark it for later 🔖. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • How I accidentally wrote a simple Markdown editor
    Let's break it down a bit. You can use Regex101 to follow me. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • 22 Unique Developer Resources You Should Explore
    URL: https://regex101.com What it does: Test and debug regular expressions with instant explanations. Why it's great: Simplifies regex learning and ensures patterns work as intended. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
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explainshell mentions (111)

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What are some alternatives?

When comparing regular expressions 101 and explainshell, you can also consider the following products

RegExr - RegExr.com is an online tool to learn, build, and test Regular Expressions.

cheat.sh - The only cheat sheet you need Unified access to the best community driven documentation

rubular - A ruby based regular expression editor

Kmdr - Kmdr explains the syntax of CLI commands you select in your browser

Expresso - The award-winning Expresso editor is equally suitable as a teaching tool for the beginning user of regular expressions or as a full-featured development environment for the experienced programmer with an extensive knowledge of regular expressions.

crontab guru - The quick and simple editor for cron schedule expressions by Cronitor