It's a good sign if the interviewee thinks about an RE modifying the strings in a program, though. While programmers who think RE are all-powerful are likely ou

It's a good sign if the interviewee thinks about an RE modifying the strings in a program, though. While programmers who think RE are all-powerful are likely outnumbered by those completely ignorant of them, they're out there. It's important to know REs' limitations - sometimes you need an actual parser. (My favorite example: RFC-822-compliant e-mail address validation - http://www.ex-parrot.com/~pdw/Mail-RFC822-Address.html http://www.ex-parrot.com/~pdw/Mail-RFC822-Address.html)