End user tool for generating a regular expression

Question

We have a SaaS application requirement to allow a user responsible for building a CMS site to define up to 10 custom fields in a form. As part of this field definition we want to add a field validation option which we will store (and apply at runtime) as a reg-ex.

Are there any tools, code samples or similar that offer a wizard style front end for building a reg-ex. We are looking to embed a control or code into our .NET site that will generate the reg-ex from (pseudo) user friendly terms (close to natural language if possible).

e.g. Field 1 = (5 alphanumerics) followed-by (1 to 3 numerics) followed by "-" followed by 1 alpha

Answer 1

I really like regexbuddy http://www.regexbuddy.com/

expresso is really good to, and will generate c# code http://www.ultrapico.com/Expresso.htm

both will show you a "pseudo" representation of the regex

Answer 2

Expresso:

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/dotnet/expresso.aspx

There is also an advanced (commercial) version (http://www.ultrapico.com/Expresso.htm)

Answer 3

I don't know of any tools that you can embed into your application. RegexBuddy, which I developed, does provide a COM interface and a command line interface that allows your application to send a regular expression to RegexBuddy, and receive the modified regular expression back from RegexBuddy. RegexBuddy's web site has more details.

RegexBuddy shows an English language analysis of the regular expression, and provides an "Insert Token" menu to easily build up a regular expression without remembering the syntax.