T-Regex

A fluent, type-safe Kotlin DSL for building, composing, and testing Regular Expressions.

Tame the chaos of regular expressions. Write readable Kotlin code instead of cryptic string soup. Get compile-time safety and type-safe data extraction without sacrificing the power of the underlying regex engine.

Documentation · GitHub Releases

Contents

• Quick start
• Why T-Regex?
• Building

Quick start

1. Library

Add the dependency to your project:

dependencies {
    implementation("uk.co.developmentanddinosaurs:tregex-core:<version>")
}

2. Usage

Build regular expressions using the builder DSL.

import uk.co.developmentanddinosaurs.tregex.TRegex

val pattern = TRegex {
    literally("hello world")
}

// Access the compiled pattern
println(pattern.pattern) // "hello world"

// Evaluate against inputs
pattern.matches("hello world") // true

Why T-Regex?

• Readable: Replace write-only syntax like ^[a-zA-Z0-9_\-\.]+$ with semantic blocks like anyCharOf { letter() or digit() }.
• No boolean blindness: Strict separation of concepts instead of parameter flags (e.g., oneOrMoreLazily() instead of oneOrMore(greedy = false)).
• Cross-platform safe: Emits universally compatible regex strings without relying on engine-specific hacks like \Q...\E.
• Composable: Extract common regex fragments into reusable Kotlin functions and variables.

Building

# Build everything and run all verification checks
./gradlew check

# Run the test suite (Kotest BDD)
./gradlew test

📜 License

MIT License. Built with 🦕 by the Development and Dinosaurs community.