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On With the Show: The Birth of Regular Expressions

Explore the history of regular expressions from their mathematical roots to their practical uses in JavaScript. Understand how regex evolved for text editors and compiler design, and discover its broad applications in programming and data processing today.

Did you know regular expressions have been around since the ’50s? Mind you, maybe not for the exact same practical uses we have these days, or even as part of the same field of knowledge like today, but it’s definitely not a new concept.

Stephen Cole Kleene

In fact, one could say that the father of regular expressions was Stephen Cole Kleene, an American mathematician who used, what he called at the time, “regular events ...

Stephen Cole Kleene
Stephen Cole Kleene