You've probably heard of regex, also known as regular expressions. Regex is at its core (before you add support for advanced stuff like backreferences) a generi

You've probably heard of regex, also known as regular expressions. Regex is at its core (before you add support for advanced stuff like backreferences) a generic way of defining an arbitrary regular language. Each regular expression corresponds to a deterministic finite automaton (DFA) which detects strings belonging to that language. EDIT, to add a bit more: The theory behind regular languages allows you to design a regex system, to know its limitations and to be able to determine whether a language can be matched by a regex or it requires a more powerful model. It can definitely be useful to think in terms of such theoretical constructs when approaching new problems, but it takes some getting used to before it can become productive. For this reason, I think the cost/benefit ratio of learning this for someone completely new to it can vary. It's probably not always worth it in all settings, but it certainly has practical merit.