• Skullgrid@lemmy.world
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    10 hours ago

    I suppose you could write functions like, startswith, endswith, alpha(4), or something like that,

    yes.

    but in the end, is that better?

    YES.

    startswith('text');
    lengthMustBe(5);
    onlyContain(CHARSETS.ALPHANUMERICS); 
    endswith('text');
    

    is much more legible than []],[.<{}>,]‘text’[[]]][][)()(a-z,0-9){}{><}<>{}‘text’{}][][

    • BassTurd@lemmy.world
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      10 hours ago

      Assuming “text” in your example is a placeholder for a 5 digit alpha string, it can be written like this in regex: /[a-zA-Z0-9]{5}/

      If ”text" is literal, then your statement is impossible.

      I think that when it gets to more complex expressions like a phone number with country code that accepts different formats, the verbosity of a higher level language will be more confusing, or at least more difficult to take in quickly.