regexplain/Readme.Rmd

---
title: "regexplain"
output: github_document
---

```{r setup, include=FALSE}
knitr::opts_chunk$set(echo = TRUE)
library(regexplain)
```

<!-- Links -->
[regexr]: https://regexr.com/

## WORK IN PROGRESS!!

regexplain is going to be an RStudio addin that helps you interactively build up your regex.
Inspired by [RegExr][regexr] and `stringr::str_view`.

## Done (ish)

You can use `view_regex()` for a `stringr::str_view()` replacement that includes groups.

```r
text <- c("breakfast=eggs;lunch=pizza",
          "breakfast=bacon;lunch=spaghetti", 
          "no food here")
pattern <- "((\\w+)=)(\\w+).+(ch=s?p)"

view_regex(text, pattern)
```

![Example `view_regex(text, pattern)`.](docs/view-regex.png)

```r
t_nested <- "anestedgroupwithingroupexample"
r_nested <- "(a(nested)(group(within(group))(example)))"
view_regex(t_nested, r_nested)
```

![Example of nested groups](docs/view-nested.png)


## Planned (ish)

1. An Rstudio addin gadget that allows you to interactively enter the regex and see the results.
Like the above example, where the regex field is a text input.

2. Import data from your environment, like a character vector, file, or data.frame column when opening the gadget.

3. Help tab in the gadget, pulling from `?regex` but with some navigation.

4. Tab to interactively explore output of varying regex-applying functions. In other words, see what `stringr::str_locate_all` or `stringr::str_match_all` or `grep` or `grepl` return when applying the regex to your text.