5 ms·

A GPT 3.5 powered tool for generating regex

38 points by DefineOutside 4y ago

totoglazer 4y ago
Have you tried GPT-4? I suspect it would do better for these types of characters.
gregmac 4y ago
Pretty neat, and it definitely can generate some complex regex.. But I have to say I don't trust it! When I add a regex to something, I pretty much always also add a bunch of unit test cases for it, and I request the same if I see one in a PR. It's much easier to just see a bunch of test cases that help validate than it, and frankly, half the time when I write my own cases I think of situations that could be better handled. Human- or GPT-generated doesn't really matter IMHO; it still needs tests. Interestingly, chatGPT is pretty good at generating test cases for regex. It would be really cool to see that functionality integrated to this tool.
- l33t233372 4y ago
  > chatGPT is pretty good at generating test cases for regex I think this is the biggest part. Automatically generated test cases for regex will make verifying regex way easier. Even better, when you come across some ridiculous unknown legacy regex you can ask for an explanation of it and for test cases to verify that explanation.
williamstein 4y ago
ChatGPT is also very useful for just explaining what a regexp you already have actually does.
- abracadaniel 4y ago
  There are some neat tools for visualizing a regex like https://regexper.com/ https://regexper.com/
  - vector_spaces 4y ago
    There's also regexr.com which explains in more or less plain English what's happening
    - imilk 4y ago
      Personally a fan of https://regex101.com/ https://regex101.com/
Shindi 4y ago
If you're using a regex it's a smell that there is a better tool for what you need to do. A ton of if statements is a much more readable way of writing code than regex.
- encryptluks2 4y ago
  Unfortunately regex is the best we have. A bunch of if statements is also a whole less efficient and prone to errors than a regex statement. Once you start to learn regex, it actually isn't that bad. The challenging part is that a lot of people cut and paste not really understanding it and you end up with a bunch of bad regex examples.
  - jwestbury 4y ago
    Eh, I think the challenging part is understanding a complex regex that's already been written. You really do need good comments and unit tests to go along with a regex in order to understand the intent, otherwise they rapidly become unmaintainable.
- zamnos 4y ago
  Respectfully, no. If you're trying to write a full blown language parser then regexps are the wrong tool, but a 50 line function doing the job of a regexp has a really funky code smell. Comment your regexps*, and use a parser when your usecase outgrows regexps, but a blanket ban on regexps smells of "I'm not smart enough to understand them". * https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/regular-expressions-cookbook/9781449327453/ch02s18.html https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/regular-expressions-coo...
mike_hock 4y ago
> /^(?:\/(?:\\\/|[^\/\n])+\/[gimuy]{0,5}|\\[^\n]|[^\n\\\/])+$/ What would you say was the query for this?
- thamer 4y ago
  The regular version of ChatGPT can explain it pretty well. I asked it about your regex and it gave me a detailed breakdown; it's a bit too long to post it here but just to quote the [gimuy] part: > [gimuy]{0,5}: This part of the pattern matches optional regex flags that can follow the closing forward slash of the regex pattern. The allowed flags are g (global), i (case-insensitive), m (multiline), u (unicode), and y (sticky). This part of the pattern matches zero to five of these flags, without repetition. Full response: https://gist.github.com/nicolasff/3bbfb4cb8a514f58e140b887bf9c4d08 https://gist.github.com/nicolasff/3bbfb4cb8a514f58e140b887bf...
sv123 4y ago
I once had a problem I solved with regex, now I have two problems.
BMc2020 4y ago
Rate limit reached for default-gpt-3.5-turbo in organization org-cy3MEIpOsyQxMokN4SQON5gb on requests per min. Limit: 20 / min. Please try again in 3s. Contact support@openai.com if you continue to have issues. Please add a payment method to your account to increase your rate limit. Visit https://platform.openai.com/account/billing https://platform.openai.com/account/billing to add a payment method. Ironically, it showed us the real future of AI
- jwestbury 4y ago
  I used to work for a tech company which ran our incident management stack on Google Cloud. One day, our incident management tool was unavailable due to some billing issue. Turns out, someone during the test phase set up a limit of $1/day usage, and nobody ever changed it. We'd just finally hit that limit. What I'm saying is, this isn't an AI-only problem, but it's comforting to know it's already impacting AI-backed tools.
thomasahle 4y ago
This is what is gives to select names: /^[A-Z][a-z]+(?: [A-Z][a-z]+)*$/ I'm pretty sure quite a lot of people's names wouldn't be accepted by that. It helps if you add "even weird and foreign names", but who knows if that's actually enough to capture everything.
- travisjungroth 4y ago
  It might be good to say what you want in natural language or have it come up with that from your goal. A regex that worked for all names would be extremely weak. I can’t imagine it being much more than testing valid characters.
- zamnos 4y ago
  It's not. I'll be the first one to link to the list of falsehoods programmers believe about names: https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-names/ https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-... It should be required reading before being allowed to write code that'll operate on user profiles, but there's no such thing as a programming license, so this link will have to do.
- rjh29 4y ago
  There is basically no regex to validate names except for maybe "is not an empty string".
sw1sh 4y ago
Is it time to revive HTML regex meme yet?
TradingPlaces 4y ago
Finally, something useful to me. If it worked. My experience was spotty in that regard.
themineraria 4y ago
I think I broke it pretty badly asking for "A ll(1) grammar validator" as it answered `^(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:[A-Z]|[a-z])(?:[A-Z]|[a-z]|[0-9])):(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:[A-Z]|[a-z])(?:[A-Z]|[a-z]|[0-9])):)+(?:(?:(? lol id: chatcmpl-6zxdwNH3hW7DuZqnCkx4Ukx9rXiuA token usage: 367 date: 1680225296

38 points by DefineOutside 4y ago

Have you tried GPT-4? I suspect it would do better for these types of characters.

Pretty neat, and it definitely can generate some complex regex.. But I have to say I don't trust it! When I add a regex to something, I pretty much always also add a bunch of unit test cases for it, and I request the same if I see one in a PR. It's much easier to just see a bunch of test cases that help validate than it, and frankly, half the time when I write my own cases I think of situations that could be better handled. Human- or GPT-generated doesn't really matter IMHO; it still needs tests. Interestingly, chatGPT is pretty good at generating test cases for regex. It would be really cool to see that functionality integrated to this tool.

l33t233372 4y ago
> chatGPT is pretty good at generating test cases for regex I think this is the biggest part. Automatically generated test cases for regex will make verifying regex way easier. Even better, when you come across some ridiculous unknown legacy regex you can ask for an explanation of it and for test cases to verify that explanation.

williamstein 4y ago

ChatGPT is also very useful for just explaining what a regexp you already have actually does.

abracadaniel 4y ago
There are some neat tools for visualizing a regex like https://regexper.com/ https://regexper.com/
- vector_spaces 4y ago
  There's also regexr.com which explains in more or less plain English what's happening
  - imilk 4y ago
    Personally a fan of https://regex101.com/ https://regex101.com/

Shindi 4y ago

If you're using a regex it's a smell that there is a better tool for what you need to do. A ton of if statements is a much more readable way of writing code than regex.

encryptluks2 4y ago
Unfortunately regex is the best we have. A bunch of if statements is also a whole less efficient and prone to errors than a regex statement. Once you start to learn regex, it actually isn't that bad. The challenging part is that a lot of people cut and paste not really understanding it and you end up with a bunch of bad regex examples.
- jwestbury 4y ago
  Eh, I think the challenging part is understanding a complex regex that's already been written. You really do need good comments and unit tests to go along with a regex in order to understand the intent, otherwise they rapidly become unmaintainable.
zamnos 4y ago
Respectfully, no. If you're trying to write a full blown language parser then regexps are the wrong tool, but a 50 line function doing the job of a regexp has a really funky code smell. Comment your regexps*, and use a parser when your usecase outgrows regexps, but a blanket ban on regexps smells of "I'm not smart enough to understand them". * https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/regular-expressions-cookbook/9781449327453/ch02s18.html https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/regular-expressions-coo...

mike_hock 4y ago

> /^(?:\/(?:\\\/|[^\/\n])+\/[gimuy]{0,5}|\\[^\n]|[^\n\\\/])+$/ What would you say was the query for this?

thamer 4y ago
The regular version of ChatGPT can explain it pretty well. I asked it about your regex and it gave me a detailed breakdown; it's a bit too long to post it here but just to quote the [gimuy] part: > [gimuy]{0,5}: This part of the pattern matches optional regex flags that can follow the closing forward slash of the regex pattern. The allowed flags are g (global), i (case-insensitive), m (multiline), u (unicode), and y (sticky). This part of the pattern matches zero to five of these flags, without repetition. Full response: https://gist.github.com/nicolasff/3bbfb4cb8a514f58e140b887bf9c4d08 https://gist.github.com/nicolasff/3bbfb4cb8a514f58e140b887bf...

sv123 4y ago

I once had a problem I solved with regex, now I have two problems.

BMc2020 4y ago

Rate limit reached for default-gpt-3.5-turbo in organization org-cy3MEIpOsyQxMokN4SQON5gb on requests per min. Limit: 20 / min. Please try again in 3s. Contact support@openai.com if you continue to have issues. Please add a payment method to your account to increase your rate limit. Visit https://platform.openai.com/account/billing https://platform.openai.com/account/billing to add a payment method. Ironically, it showed us the real future of AI

jwestbury 4y ago
I used to work for a tech company which ran our incident management stack on Google Cloud. One day, our incident management tool was unavailable due to some billing issue. Turns out, someone during the test phase set up a limit of $1/day usage, and nobody ever changed it. We'd just finally hit that limit. What I'm saying is, this isn't an AI-only problem, but it's comforting to know it's already impacting AI-backed tools.

thomasahle 4y ago

This is what is gives to select names: /^[A-Z][a-z]+(?: [A-Z][a-z]+)*$/ I'm pretty sure quite a lot of people's names wouldn't be accepted by that. It helps if you add "even weird and foreign names", but who knows if that's actually enough to capture everything.

travisjungroth 4y ago
It might be good to say what you want in natural language or have it come up with that from your goal. A regex that worked for all names would be extremely weak. I can’t imagine it being much more than testing valid characters.
zamnos 4y ago
It's not. I'll be the first one to link to the list of falsehoods programmers believe about names: https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-names/ https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-... It should be required reading before being allowed to write code that'll operate on user profiles, but there's no such thing as a programming license, so this link will have to do.
rjh29 4y ago
There is basically no regex to validate names except for maybe "is not an empty string".

sw1sh 4y ago

Is it time to revive HTML regex meme yet?

TradingPlaces 4y ago

Finally, something useful to me. If it worked. My experience was spotty in that regard.

themineraria 4y ago

I think I broke it pretty badly asking for "A ll(1) grammar validator" as it answered `^(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:[A-Z]|[a-z])(?:[A-Z]|[a-z]|[0-9])):(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:(?:[A-Z]|[a-z])(?:[A-Z]|[a-z]|[0-9])):)+(?:(?:(? lol id: chatcmpl-6zxdwNH3hW7DuZqnCkx4Ukx9rXiuA token usage: 367 date: 1680225296